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Catiline's Conspiracy.

While Pompeius was absent in the East, Rome ran imminent risk of seeing days worse than those of Marius and Sulla, and crimes of equal or greater enormity perpetrated. L. Sergius Catilina, a man of patrician extraction, but of profligate manners and ruined fortunes, conceived hopes of being able to overthrow the constitution. Several men of high rank were concerned in this conspiracy. Catiline stood for the consulship, but failed, M. Tullius Cicero, the illustrious orator, being chosen. His designs being discovered, he became desperate, and resolved on the murder of the consul and the principal senators, and setting fire to the city; but information of all his projects was given to the consul, and Catiline was at length obliged to leave Rome, and put himself at the head of such forces as he had been able to bring together. His accomplices at Rome were meanwhile discovered and executed, and he himself engaging with the army sent against him, fought and fell with a heroism B. c. worthy of a better cause.

The Gallic War of Cæsar.

At this period the leading men in Rome were Pompeius, named the Great, and flushed with his victories; Crassus, distinguished for his riches, and the conqueror of Spartacus; Cæsar, a man of noble birth, distinguished talents, ruined fortune, and now father-in-law of Pompeius; Cato, of pre-eminent virtue, unstained character, and only to be blamed (if blame could attach to such a principle) for not being able to accommodate himself to the manners of the times, and of thus being unable to render more real service to his country; and, lastly, Cicero, the crusher of the projects of Catiline, the ablest orator, the most accomplished and virtuous statesman, only unhappy in a want of firmness and decision of character.

The ambition of the three former could not be restrained by the virtue and moderation of the two last. Already Cæsar and Crassus had been more than suspected of being privy to the plans of Catiline, trusting

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that, through their superior character, talents, and influence, they might be able to seize on the supreme power, when his ruthless ferocity had removed all obstacles and all competitors. Cæsar had been afterwards prætor in Spain, and had there repaired his dilapidated fortune. On his return to Rome he had been made consul, and while in office he caused several laws to be passed, which gratified and increased his influence with Pompeius, the knights, and the people. He took occasion to reconcile Pompeius, who was married to his daughter, with Crassus, whose wealth gave him great power with the people, and the three formed among themselves that coalition or secret compact of mutual support and mutual regard to each other's interest, known under the name of the Triumvirate.

Cæsar, on the expiration of his consulate, had himself appointed for five years to the government of the Gauls. Cisalpine Gaul had long been a part of Italy. The Romans had first entered Transalpine Gaul B. c. 123., and shortly after reduced the south-eastern part of it to the form of a province.

Gaul was divided into a number of independent states, some of a more, some of a less warlike character. The most powerful race were the Belgians, who dwelt from the Alps northwards to the sea, mingled with tribes of Germanic race. The Helvetii, a portion of 57. these, dwelling at the foot of Mount Jura, gave the Roman governor the wished-for opportunity of increasing his military fame and power, and of securing the tranquillity of Italy. United with several German tribes, they set fire to their dwellings, and in an immense body set forth to pass the Jura in search of more smiling lands. Cæsar hastened to Geneva, pursued them, and brought them to an engagement, in which Roman tactics and discipline speedily triumphed over ignorant courage. He followed their enfeebled forces, and compelled them to surrender. They were received as allies, and a colony was placed, for future security, at the principal pass of Jura.

In some parts of Gaul confederacies were formed against the Romans, in others oppressed states called on Cæsar for protection: one after another the confederacies and the states fell before his genius. During a command of ten years (for, by the influence of Pompeius, it had been prolonged) he reduced the entire of Gaul, crossed the Rhine, carried the arms of Rome into the gloom of the Hercynian forest, and passed the channel which divides from the continent the island of Britain, hitherto known only by name to the inhabitants of Italy.

Each day filled Rome with wonder by the intelligence that arrived of the victories of Cæsar in Gaul. His influence and the number of his partisans in Rome were great. He aided Pompeius and Crassus to get the consulate he was continued in his Gallic command. Pompeius took Africa and Spain as his province; Crassus preferred the wealthy, luxurious Syria. Pompeius remained at Rome, and administered his provinces by lieutenants. Crassus hastened to Asia, where the Parthians were now in arms against the republic. He marched against them, crossed the Euphrates, and was near Carrhæ defeated with great loss by Surena, the Parthian commander. He surrendered, and was put to B. c. death, and his skull filled with molten gold as a reproach 54. of his avarice.

Julia, the wife of Pompeius, was also dead; the bonds which had kept the two most powerful and ambitious men of Rome from discord were now both removed. Pompeius could not endure a rival, Cæsar a superior. All prudent men saw that the sword must be the arbiter. The nobility all looked up to Pompeius as the chief support of the aristocracy. He was appointed consul without a colleague. He remained still at Rome; and the troops in his province were commanded by able and faithful officers. He sought to have the dictatorship renewed in his person. Cæsar and his friends required that he should be nominated consul in his absence, as more extraordinary transgressions of usage had been done in the case of Pompeius. Cæsar having now com

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pleted the conquest of Gaul, and thus established a frontier against the Germans, the people whom italy had now most to dread, was meanwhile returning to Rome. All the towns of the province of Cisalpine Gaul vied in rendering honours and hospitality to the amiable conqueror and tranquilliser of Gaul. Pompeius sent to demand of Cæsar that he should give up two legions which he had lent him they were given up. The senate then decreed that Cæsar should disband his legions, and seek the consulate like any other private man. The heads of the state and senate, from various motives, concurred in this decree. Cato, who never looked to expediency, but to right, supported it. Cicero in vain sought to mediate. Curio, a man of talent and eloquence, but profligate morals, and M. Antonius, his colleague in the tribunate, whose character resembled his, but who excelled him in military skill, were zealous partisans of Cæsar. All the other public officers were on the side of Pompeius, who maintained that the army was averse to Cæsar, and reckoned himself certain of the attachment of ten legions. Without waiting for the declaration of Cæsar, the senate, in an evil hour for them, issued their decree, that all the members of the executive should exert themselves for the defence of the republic, that troops should be raised, and Cn. Pompeius supported out of the public treasury. Meantime Cæsar's answer arrived, offering to disband his army, all but one legion, and to come and seek the consulate as a private citizen; but even his presence was dreaded in Rome. When the news reached Cæsar, he had but five cohorts with him; the rest of his troops were dispersed in numerous towns. He was near Rimini, on the banks of a little stream called the Rubicon, where Proper Italy was considered to end, and which no general could venture to pass without permission of the senate, under penalty of being declared a public enemy. It was a moment of importance, not to Cæsar only, but to the future world. Should he submit, or should he lead his army against Rome, against his country? On horseback, in the open air, Cæsar all night long pondered

this weighty question. At daybreak, his anxious soldiers found him still riding to and fro, deep sunk in thought. At length he cried " The die is cast," gave his horse the spurs, and sprang across the stream, followed by his troops.

Civil War of Cæsar and Pompeius.

All the towns of Italy opened their gates to Cæsar as he approached them; the garrisons all joined his standard. Corfinium alone resisted; but its garrison also passed over to Cæsar, and Domitius, its governor, and his officers, entered the camp of the conqueror as captives, and experienced only clemency. On receiving intelligence of the approach of Cæsar, Pompeius, Cicero, Cato, the consuls, and the senate abandoned Rome in haste, and fled to Capua. Cæsar still advanced, making every day proposals of peace. When he drew near to Brundusium, Pompeius and his friends passed over to Greece: he marched to Rome, assembled the senate and people, and declared that he was driven by the conduct of his enemies to act as he was doing. Then knowing that the main strength of Pompeius lay in the army in Spain, commanded by Afranius and Petreius, he resolved to march against it without delay. He took money out of the treasury, and set out for Spain. Massilia opposed his passage, but soon was forced to open her gates. The obstacles presented by the rivers and mountains of Spain were surmounted by the genius of Cæsar. The Pompeian generals, notwithstanding their advantageous position, were forced to surrender themselves and their armies, without fighting a single battle. Having conquered the army, he hastened to engage the general, passed rapidly through Gaul and Italy, embarked at Brundusium, and landed his troops at Dyrrhachium.

Pompeius had summoned to his standard the troops of the kings of the East, whom he had formerly vanquished; Greece and Africa contributed to augment his forces; the majesty of the senate was in his camp; he himself called back the vigour, energy, and skill of his younger

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