Emperor of the French Napoleon III

“ Pompey, always under the influence of his wife’s charms, appeared to rest satisfied with the part which was assigned to him. Had he been free from all engagement, and obeyed his own instincts, he would have embraced the cause of the Senate rather than that which he was sustaining; for men of a nature so vain as his, prefer the flattering adherence of the aristocracy in the middle of which they live, to the expression of the approbation of the people, which rarely reaches their ears. ”

“ Cæsar is going to quit Rome, to go far from the debates of the Forum, the agitation of the comitia, and the intrigues of a corrupt town, in order to take the command of his troops. Let us, then, for a moment lay aside the statesman, and consider only the warrior, the great captain. The Roman proconsul is not one of those barbarian chieftains who, at the head of innumerable hordes, throw themselves upon a foreign country to ravage it with fire and sword. ”

“ The heavy cavalry, lance in rest, charge the great Roman square, and attempt to break it; but the thick and close ranks of the legions oppose an invincible resistance. The Parthians fall back a certain distance and call up their numerous archers, then, all together, they return in line, and throw upon the deep masses of the Romans a shower of missiles of which none fail of their aim. ”

“ The disease which undermines society unknown to it, reveals itself when facts, of no great importance in themselves, occur suddenly to produce an unforeseen crisis, to unveil dangers which were unperceived, and to show to all men that society on the brink of an abyss of which nobody had suspected the depth. Thus, by mere accidents of his life, Clodius seems to have been destined to cause the explosion of the elements of disorder which the Republic concealed in its bosom. ”

“ They therefore remained shut up in their camp, and let the Romans range their troops and offer battle. But this deliberate temporising, which had all the appearance of fear, kindled, on the contrary, that of the Romans: they demanded with loud cries to march against the enemy without delay. Crassus yields to their impatience, and leads them forward. Some fill the fosse, others drive away with a shower of missiles the barbarians who stand on the rampart. ”

“ The situation of the Republic inspires me every day with more uneasiness. Honest people do not agree so well as is thought. How many Roman knights, how many senators, have I not heard inveighing against Pompey, particularly on account of this unfortunate journey! What we want is peace. All victory will be fatal, and cause a tyrant to rise up. Yes, I am one of those who think that it is better to grant all he (Cæsar) asks than to appeal to arms. ”

“ In this strange and ignoble dispute Milo was forgotten; it had become nothing more than a sort of duel between Clodius and Pompey. Clodius, in the midst of his satellites, cried out at the utmost extent of his voice, “Who is the man who makes us die of hunger?” And all the populace, with the unity of a tragic chorus, cried “Pompey!”—“Who wants to go into Egypt?” cried Clodius again. A thousand voices replied, “Pompey!”—“Who ought to be sent there?” “Crassus!” [616] Clodius added, “Who is the autocrat whom nothing satisfies? ”

“ One part of the assailants throw darts; another advances, forming the tortoise; fresh troops incessantly relieve the soldiers who are weary. All strive desperately to fill the fosses, to render useless the accessory defences by covering them with earth, and to scale the rampart. Already the Romans begin to feel the want of arms and strength. Cæsar, informed of this state of things, sends Labienus to their succour with six cohorts, and orders him, if the troops cannot maintain themselves behind the retrenchments, to withdraw them and make a sally, but only at the last extremity. ”

“ The Romans owe the constancy of their successes to the method, from which they never departed, of encamping every night in a fortified camp, and of never giving battle without having behind them a retrenched camp, to serve them as a place of retreat, and to contain their magazines, their baggage, and their wounded. The nature of arms in those ages was such that, in these camps, they were not only in safety from the attacks of an equal army, but even an army which was stronger; they were the masters to fight or to wait a favourable opportunity. ”

“ We read together the speech of Antony, of the 10th of the Calends of January, which is, from beginning to end, an accusation against Pompey, whom he takes up from his infantile toga. He reproaches him with condemnations by thousands; he threatens us with war. Upon which Pompey said to me, ‘What will Cæsar not do, once master of the Republic, if his quæstor, a man without wealth, without support, dare to speak in this manner?’ In short, far from desiring such a peace, he appeared to me to fear it, perhaps because then he would be obliged to go to Spain. ”

“ The defeat of Cæsar would have stopped for a long period the advance of Roman domination, of that domination which, across rivers of blood, it is true, conducted the peoples to a better future. The Gauls, intoxicated with their success, would have called to their aid all those nomadic peoples who followed the course of the sun to create themselves a country, and all together would have thrown themselves upon Italy; that focus of intelligence, destined to enlighten the peoples, would then have been destroyed, before it had been able to develop its expansive force. ”

“ Sometimes the tribunes of the people, the only magistrates whose elections took place on a fixed day, opposed the holding of the comitia; sometimes the interreges themselves failed to obtain favourable auspices, or, in moments of trouble, dared not assemble the people. [716] The boldness of the agitators of all parties explains this anarchy.
Weary of intrigues and disorder, the public opinion looked for the end of it only from a new power, which wrests from Cicero this painful confession: “The Republic is without force; Pompey alone is powerful.” ”

“ Cæsar is obliged, sword in hand, to throw himself into the thick of the fight. Nevertheless, the fortune of the battle is gradually restored; the centre and left wing have repulsed their assailants; the latter arrives to succour the right wing in its peril; the two legions of the rear-guard hasten to the field of battle; then victory decides for the Romans, and the peoples of Hainault are nearly annihilated. In this engagement the experience and valour of the old veteran soldiers save the Roman army from the impetuosity of the Belgæ. ”

“ When, therefore, Suetonius ascribes the inspiration of the campaigns of this great man to the mere desire of enriching himself with plunder, he is false to history and to good sense, and assigns the most vulgar motive to a noble design. When other historians ascribe to Cæsar the sole intention of seeking in Gaul a means of rising to the supreme power by civil war, they show, as we have remarked elsewhere, a distorted view; they judge events by their final result, instead of calmly estimating the causes which have produced them. ”

“ It was no sooner agreed, in a moment of danger, to give to one man the authority necessary to restore order and tranquillity, than, at the same moment, everybody united to attack and degrade him, as if each were afraid of his own work. Cicero has hardly returned from exile, when the friends who have recalled him become jealous of his influence; they see with pleasure a certain degree of coldness arise between Pompey and him, and secretly support the intrigues{432} of Clodius. ”

“ I. CÆSAR’S victories had awakened among the Gauls feelings of admiration, but also of distrust; they could not see without fear that it had required only six legions to scatter two invasions, each counting 100,000 combatants. There are successes which, by their very brilliancy, alarm even those who profit by them. Nearly all Gaul looks on with jealousy at events which prove the superiority of permanent armies over populations without military organization. ”

“ To their prayers, Cæsar replied, “that last year the Bellovaci had revolted in concert with the other Gaulish peoples, but that they alone had persisted in the revolt. It was very convenient to throw their faults upon those who were dead; but how could it be believed that, with nothing but the help of a weak populace, a man should have had sufficient influence to raise and sustain a war, contrary to the will of the chiefs, the decision of the Senate, and the desire of honest people? ”

“ Roman society, in a state of dissolution, asked for a master; oppressed Italy, for a representative of its rights; the world, bowed under the yoke, for a saviour. Ought he, by deserting his mission, disappoint so many legitimate hopes, so many noble aspirations? What! Cæsar, who owed all his dignities to the people, and confining himself within his right, should he have retired before Pompey, who, having become the docile tool of a factious minority of the Senate, was trampling right and justice under foot ”

“ Caius Cato violates the law by making public the Sibylline oracle. On all sides people have recourse to illegal means, which vary according to their several tempers; some, like Milo, Sextius, and Clodius, openly place themselves at the head of armed bands; others act with timidity and dissimulation, like Cicero, who, one day, after a previous unsuccessful attempt, carries away by stealth from the Capitol the plate of brass which bore inscribed the law which had proscribed him. A singular error of men, who believe that they efface history by destroying a few visible signs of the past! ”

“ If their challenge is accepted, they chaunt a war-song, in which they boast of the great deeds of their forefathers, exalting their own valour and insulting their adversary. After the victory, they cut off their enemy’s head, hang it to their horse’s neck, and carry it off with songs of triumph. ”

“ The inhabitants of Savoy, instead of responding to the appeal made to their old independence, oppose a vigorous resistance to the attacks of the Gauls, and the Vivarais shows no less devotedness to the Roman cause.
As to the Gaulish army, its strength consisted chiefly in cavalry; the footmen, in spite of the efforts of Vercingetorix, composed only an undisciplined mass; for military organisation is always a reflection of the state of society, and where there is no people there is no infantry. In Gaul, as Cæsar tells us, two classes alone were dominant, the priests and the nobles. ”

“ The glory acquired in Gaul assured Cæsar beforehand of the public favour, which was to carry him again to the first magistracy. Nevertheless, to dispel the obstacles continually raised by a powerful party, it was necessary to remove hostile competitors from important offices; to gain the support of distinguished men, such as Cicero; and, as everything was venal, to buy, with the produce of the booty he made by war, the consciences which were for sale. This course, seconded by Pompey and Crassus, promised success. ”

“ In speaking of Pompey’s party, Cicero exclaims: “Men who all, with the exception of a very small number, breathed nothing but pillage, and discourses such as made one tremble, the more as victory might convert them into reality: not a person of rank who was not crippled with debts: there was absolutely nothing beautiful except the cause which they served.” ”

“ Wars undertaken in accord with the traditional sentiment of a country have alone the privilege of moving deeply the fibre of the people, and the importance of a victory is measured by the greatness of the disaster which would have followed a defeat. Since the fall of Carthage, the conquests in Spain, in Africa, in Syria, in Asia, and in Greece, enlarged the Republic, but did not consolidate it, and a check in those different parts of the world would have diminished the power of Rome without compromising it. ”

“ Hardly has he put the troops in motion, when he sees the Parthians approaching to meet him, uttering shouts of victory, and carrying the head of his son on the end of a pike. In this circumstance, Crassus recovers an instant that energy familiar to the Roman character, and, passing along the ranks, “Soldiers,” he exclaims, “this loss concerns me alone. As long as you live, all the fortune and all the glory of Rome endure and remain invincible. ”

“ The rear-guard of Labienus had no sooner begun its march, than the barbarians urge each other not to let a prey so long coveted escape them. They imagine that the Romans are struck with terror, and, thinking it disgraceful to wait any longer the succour of the Germans, they cross the river and advance unhesitatingly{259} upon unfavourable ground. Labienus, seeing the success of his stratagem, continued slowly his apparent retreat, in order to draw all the Gauls over the river. He had sent forward, to an eminence, the baggage, guarded by a detachment of cavalry. ”