everything to obeying my father's injunctions, for he had written ordering me to give him up at once. I would n't shilly-shally about the business, for fear my making a fuss should cause my father to harbor some suspicion. Moreover, it occurred to me that it would be offensive for me to express an opinion on a decision of my father's. However, your interest and advice are welcome and acceptable. Your apology for lack of time I quite accept; for I know how busy you always are. I am very glad that you have bought an estate, and you have my best wishes for the success of your purchase. Don't be surprised at my congratulations coming in at this point in my letter, for it was at the corresponding point in yours that you told me of your purchase. You are a man of property! You must drop your city manners: you have become a Roman country gentleman. How clearly I have your dearest face before my eyes at this moment! For I seem to see you buying things for the farm, talking to your bailiff, saving the seeds at dessert in the corner of your cloak. But as to the matter of money, I am as sorry as you that I was not on the spot to help you. But do not doubt, my dear Tiro, of my assisting you in the future, if fortune does but stand by me; especially as I know that this estate has been purchased for our joint advantage. As to my commissions about which you are taking trouble - many thanks! But I beg you to send me a secretary at the earliest opportunity-if possible a Greek; for he will save me a great deal of trouble in copying out notes. Above all, take care of your health, that we may have some literary talk together hereafter. I commend Anteros 1 to you.

1

1 The slave who brought the letter.

TO GAIUS TREBONIUS, IN ASIA1

(Fam. X., 28.)

ROME, B. C. 43.

3

How I could wish that you had invited me to that most glorious banquet on the Ides of March! 2 We should have had no leavings! While, as it is, we are having such a trouble with them, that the magnificent service which you men then did the state leaves room for some grumbling. In fact, for Antony's having been taken out of the way by you, the best of men,

and that it was by your kindness that this pest still survives, I sometimes do feel, though perhaps I have no right to do so, a little angry with you. For you have left behind an amount of trouble which is greater for me than for every one else put together.

For as soon as a meeting of the senate could be freely held, after Antony's very undignified departure, I returned to that old courage of mine, which along with that gallant citizen, your father, you ever had upon your lips and in your heart. For the tribunes having summoned the senate for the 20th of December, and having brought a different piece of business before it, I reviewed the situation as a whole, and spoke with the greatest fire, and tried all I could to recall the now languid and wearied senate to its ancient and traditional valor, more by an exhibition of high spirit than of eloquence.

1 Trebonius had taken a prominent part in the conspiracy which resulted in the assassination of Caesar. He afterwards went as proconsul to the province of Asia.

2 The date of the assassination.

3 Cicero would have had Antony killed too.

4 The speech alluded to is the third Philippic.

This day and this earnest appeal from me were the first things that inspired the Roman people with the hope of recovering its liberty. And had not I supposed that a gazette of the city and of all acts of the senate was transmitted to you, I would have written you out a copy with my own hand, though I have been overpowered with a multiplicity of business. But you will learn all that from others. From me you shall have a brief narrative, and that a mere summary. Our senate is courageous, but the consulars are partly timid, partly disaffected. We have had a great loss in Servius.1 Lucius Caesar entertains the most loyal sentiments, but, being Antony's uncle, he refrains from very strong language in the senate. The consuls are splendid. Decimus Brutus is covering himself with glory. The youthful Caesar 2 is behaving excellently, and I hope he will go on as he has begun. You may at any rate be sure of this that, had he not speedily enrolled the veterans, and had not the two legions transferred themselves from Antony's army to his command, and had not Antony been confronted with that danger, there is no crime or cruelty which he would have omitted to practise. Though I suppose these facts too have been told you, yet I wished you to know them still better. I will write more when I get more leisure.

1 Servius Sulpicius Rufus, who had died while on an embassy to Antony.

2 Afterwards Augustus.

8 Antony.

CAESAR

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

INDISPUTABLY the greatest personality in Roman history, Caesar, in addition to his epoch-making achievements as a statesman and as a general, showed throughout his career a keen interest in various branches of literature and science. His writings included commentaries on the Gallic and on the Civil War, a grammatical treatise on Analogy which is said to have been composed during a journey from Italy to Transalpine Gaul, a work dealing with some problems of astronomy, a pamphlet against Cato Minor, written in the camp at Munda in answer to the panegyric which Cicero had published shortly after Cato's suicide at Utica, some poems, and many letters and speeches. Of these the commentaries alone have come down to us, the others being known only through the testimony of contemporary or later authors or from a few fragments which have survived.

He was born in 100 B. C. The Julian gens, to which he belonged, was of patrician rank, and more than one of its members had already attained to the consulship. Of his early life and education, little is known, but one of his tutors is said to have been the Gaul M. Antonius Gnipho, a rhetorician of some repute. Through the marriage of his father's sister to Marius, he was during his boyhood and youth brought in close contact with the great popular leader, and this connection undoubtedly did much to develop in him the democratic spirit which helped to make him the idol of the Roman masses. His wife was Cornelia, the daughter of Cinna, the famous adherent of Marius. He began his

military service under M. Minucius Thermus in Asia. On his return to Rome in 78, he came forward with an accusation of extortion against Cn. Dolabella, who had been proconsul of Macedonia. Although unsuccessful in this and in a similar attempt directed against Gaius Antonius, formerly proconsul in Greece, his speeches won high praise, and he was regarded as one of the best orators of the time. He subsequently pursued his rhetorical studies under Molon at Rhodes. After holding office as quaestor, aedile, and praetor, he went in 61 to Further Spain as propraetor. The year 60 saw the formation of the first triumvirate, which made him, together with Pompey and Crassus, supreme in the state. Consul in 59, he was in the following year appointed to the proconsulship of Gaul, where he spent the greater part of nine years, actively engaged in military and administrative work. In the mean time a rupture between him and Pompey had taken place. In the Civil War which followed, the victories at Pharsalus (48), Thapsus (46), and Munda (45) made him absolute master of the Roman world. His triumph, however, was short-lived; he was assassinated on the 15th of March, 44.

The commentaries on the Gallic War are a record of his career in Gaul during the years 58–52, and were in all probability written in 51. There are seven books, each giving an account of the events of a single year. The last two years of his command are treated by his lieutenant Hirtius in the eighth book. The gap between the Gallic War and the Civil War, that is, the years 51-49, is filled by the narratives of others of his lieutenants dealing with the Alexandrian, the African, and the Spanish wars. His commentaries on the Civil War consist of three books, the first two taking up the events of 49, the third those of 48. His aim in writing the account of the Gallic War seems to have been to impress the Roman people with the greatness of his services in extending the bounds of their empire. In his work on the Civil War he doubtless desired to show that he had done everything in his power to avert the War.