James Leigh Strachan-Davidson

“ In letting loose on him again so mutinous and incompetent a colleague, Cæsar was at once embarrassing his adversary, and gaining great credit for moderation himself. He had good cause to remark five weeks later in a letter to Cicero: [4] "I am quite indifferent to the fact that those whom I released are said to have gone away to make war with me again. All my wish is, that I should act like myself, and they like what they are." Cæsar little knew that Domitius Ahenobarbus was destined to play the part of Banquo to his Macbeth. ”

“ His complaints are consistent only so far as they are always directed against what he esteems his own blindness and folly. Sometimes he blames himself for having taken arms at all; more often he is afraid that he has disgraced himself by not following the fortunes of his party to the last in Africa. Cæsar is detained in Egypt and in Asia, so that he cannot come to speech with him, and he fears that this will prevent a reconciliation. He hears that his brother and nephew have turned against him, and mean to make their own peace by accusing him to Cæsar. ”

“ Cæsar was strong in all the material elements of success; "all the rascals in Italy" writes Cicero, [35] "seem to have flocked to him;" and these were useful, no doubt, in their way to a fighting chief. None the less, Cæsar seems to have felt keenly the weak point in his own position. All men of character and standing were at heart loyal Republicans: taking a broad view of the matter, they could not but be enemies to Cæsar's cause. Cæsar did his best to remedy this weakness. ”

“ Cæsar writes to Balbus and Oppius, "and the more willingly as I had already resolved to act as leniently as possible, and to do my best to effect a reconciliation with Pompey. Let us exert ourselves to recover by such means, if it be possible, the good-will of all men, and so secure a lasting victory ”

“ What does posterity think of Hippias and Tarquin and Coriolanus, who did the same? [22] "Is not his cause then a good one? Nay, it is the best in the world; but it will be played for, mark my words, most foully." ”

“ Though he had at the moment only a small force south of the Alps, it consisted of seasoned veterans, and he pushed it forward without intermission. "We still hold Cingulum," writes Cicero on the 18th of January, [1] "we have lost Ancona; Labienus has deserted Cæsar. Are we speaking of an officer of the Roman People, or of Hannibal? Insensate and B.C. 49.unhappy man that he is! he has never had sight of so much as the shadow of true honour." Ariminum, Pisaurum, and Arretium also opened their gates to Cæsar. Pompey seems to have been taken by surprise. ”

“ Cicero, however, seems to have had no suspicion of this, and so late as the 3d of February [17] he evidently believes that Cæsar will stand to his offer; "he is a lost man else." Cicero's intention during these days was to go with Pompey to Spain, that he might have no part in the coming iniquities of Cæsar as consul. Even when this negotiation had fallen through, Cæsar continued to amuse Cicero with hopes that a peace might still be arranged, and that he himself might act as mediator. ”

“ Cicero's letters to Atticus enable us to trace, almost day by day, the fluctuations in the hopes, the wishes, and the opinions of the people of Italy during these eventful months. 49 B.C.The first news that Cæsar was actually in armed rebellion shocked and disgusted all moderate men. They were moved by the spectacle of the city left without Senate or magistrates, and of Pompey in flight—"the whole Jan. 18.aspect of opinion is changed; every one now thinks that no terms should be made with Cæsar." ”

“ I declare that if he puts no one to death and robs no one of his goods, he will become the object of affection to those who were most in dread of him. I have much conversation with men from the borough-towns and with the country people. They care for absolutely nothing except their farms, and their bits of houses and money." The threatening language reported from the Republican headquarters, and the determination which the Optimates expressed, to regard all neutrals as enemies, heightened by contrast the impression made by Cæsar's moderation. ”

“ We were much mistaken, March 25. when we supposed that Cæsar would be easy to deal with; I never saw any one less so. He would be discredited, he said, by my refusal, and the others would be more unwilling to speak if I did not come. I said their case was different. At length, 'Come,' says he, 'and speak for peace.' 'Am I to say what I please on the subject?' 'Do you suppose,' says he, 'that I claim to dictate what you shall say?' 'Then I shall move that the Senate disapproves of any expedition to Spain, or of any transport of troops to Greece ”

“ The blacker the fortunes of the Republicans look, the more Cicero is determined to throw in his lot with them. When Cæsar is swooping down on Brundisium, and Pompey's life seems in danger, he breaks out [30] in the bitter self-reproach of Achilles: "Let me die at once, since it was not mine to help my friend in death ”