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days. But he was not allowed to follow the dictates of his wisdom and experience; his cause was regarded as that of the republic; and each unwarlike senator fancied he had a right to blame and reproach the inactivity of the general. The army of Cæsar was less numerous, but better composed; his plans were controlled by none; his soldiers placed implicit confidence in his talents and fortune.

The judicious plan adopted by Pompeius was to protract the war, to weary out and exhaust by delay his adversary. The taunts of his associates induced him to quit his fortified camp. Instead of returning to Italy, where the name of the republic might have operated powerfully in his favour, he descended into the plains of Thessaly. He drew up his forces near Pharsalus. The Cæsarians fell on with rapidity sword in hand. The cavalry on one of the wings of the Pompeians pursued a body of Cæsarian cavalry who had fled; they passed the three ordinary ranks of a Roman army, when, to their surprise, they encountered a fourth: without a moment's deliberation, they fled to the neighbouring heights. The opposite Cæsarian wing attacked that which was now denuded of its horse; the three ranks of the Cæsarian army fell into one; the Pompeians could not resist the shock; they gave way; Pompeius fled, and the day was irrecoverably lost. Cæsar, with his usual humanity, rode through the field, calling on his men to spare the Roman citizens. All the letters and papers he found in the tent of Pompeius he committed to the flames, without reading them. Next day the rest of the Pompeian army surrendered. Cato, not yet despairing of the fortune of the republic, passed over to Corcyra, and thence to Africa, to renew the conflict now, not for Pompeius, but for the laws and constitution.

Pompeius fled to the sea, and embarked for Lesbos, where his wife, Cornelia, was awaiting the event of the war. The maxims of philosophy which he had always cultivated were now his consolation. In doubt whether he had better look to the Parthians, to Juba, king of

Numidia, or to Ptolemy of Egypt for support, he preferred the last, whose father his power had restored to his throne. He sailed for Egypt: the ministers of the feeble young monarch dreaded his arrival; and by their B. c. treacherous contrivance, the great Roman was murdered 49. in sight of his wife, and his naked body cast on the strand, where it was indebted for funeral honours to the gratitude and humanity of an old Roman soldier. Cæsar, who speedily arrived in Egypt, shed tears over the head of his rival which was presented to him.

Events till the Death of Cæsar.

The charms of Cleopatra, the fair queen of Egypt, detained Cæsar in Alexandria. In a tumult, excited by his partiality for that princess against her brother, he narrowly escaped death by throwing himself into the sea, and swimming to a ship. A battle soon after took place; the Egyptians were worsted, and Ptolemy lost his life in the waters. Cæsar bestowed the entire kingdom upon Cleopatra, who had two children by him.

From Egypt Cæsar proceeded to Lesser Asia against Pharnaces king of Pontus, probably to give the Pompeians an opportunity of drawing together all their forces. Veni, vidi, vici was his account to the senate of the war against the Pontic prince. He soon made his appearance in Africa, and defeated all the armies opposed to him. Cato, no longer confiding in the republic, slew himself at Utica: his example was followed by Scipio, who had commanded the army. Juba and Petreius slew 47. each other after supper.

The other Pompeian commanders retired to Spain. At Munda the two sons of Pompeius gave battle to Cæsar, who never ran greater risk of seeing fortune desert him. Desperate effort gained him the victory, and one of the sons of Pompeius remained slain on the field. The Pompeian party was now completely crushed; all opposition to Cæsar was at an end. He returned to Rome, and triumphed over all the countries he had subdued. He was entitled father of his coun

try, and made dictator for life. Mild and clement, he persecuted none; and Rome, beneath his sway, was enjoying tranquillity. As high pontiff he undertook and accomplished the reformation of the calendar, and formed the plan of a new legal code. Employment being necessary for the legions, war was meditated against the Parthians, to avenge the death of Crassus, or against the people on the coasts of the Black Sea.

In her present state of corruption the government of such a man as Cæsar was the greatest blessing that could befall Rome. The virtues requisite in a republic were no longer to be found in her; it was now her destiny to receive a master, and the world could not match the man into whose hands the power had fallen. But the old Roman sentiments still smouldered in some bosoms; the lessons and acts of Cato were still remembered with approbation; and a conspiracy was formed, in which some of the noblest and most virtuous men of Rome took part. Men who owed their lives to his clemency, their fortunes to his favour, impelled by a false idea of patriotism and public virtue, armed their hands against him; and on the ides of March, in the 708th year of 45. Rome, Cæsar fell in the senate-house, pierced by threeand-twenty wounds.

B. C.

Civil War with Brutus and Cassius.

The two principal of the conspirators were Brutus and Cassius. Of the purity of their motives, especially of those of the former, there can be little doubt: the wisdom of them is more questionable. They removed a mild despot; they brought back on their country the days of Marius and Sulla.

Cicero sought to establish concord by making the senate ratify all the acts of Cæsar, by bringing in an amnesty, and by sending the conspirators away to their respective provinces. But Marcus Antonius had, by a culpable lenity of the conspirators, been spared, and he now aimed at establishing his own power amidst the

general confusion. Against him Cicero and the senate found it necessary to set up the young Octavianus, the nephew and adopted son of Cæsar. Antonius began the war by attempting to drive Decimus Brutus, one of the conspirators, out of his province of Cisalpine Gaul. He besieged him in Mutina. The consuls, Hirtius and Pansa, marched to the relief of Brutus; Octavianus joined them, and Antonius was forced to fly into Transalpine Gaul. The two consuls fell before Mutina, not without suspicion of treachery on the part of Octavianus, whose dissimulation and want of moral principle early began to display themselves. But the senate dreamed, that they would find no difficulty in keeping him down, if by his means they could get rid of Antonius.

B. C.

Lepidus and Plancus commanded armies in Gaul. Antonius gained them over to his side. He wrote to Octavianus, who, though appointed consul in the room of Pansa, was now every day on worse and worse terms with the senate, to show him that it would be more for his advantage to join him. A meeting was held between the two and Lepidus, in a little island formed by 43. two streams, near the modern Bologna, and a second triumvirate, of a far more odious character than the former, was agreed on. Tables of proscription were drawn up, containing the names of 300 senators, 2000 knights, and many other distinguished citizens. All ties of friendship and kindred were postponed to the gratification of ambition and revenge. In the fatal list were L. Cæsar, the uncle of Antonius; Paulus, the brother of Lepidus, and Cicero, the friend and supporter of Octavianus. A man whose life and honour he had once defended was base and ungrateful enough to be the murderer of the great orator: his head was brought to Fulvia, the widow of Clodius and wife of Antonius; and with the mean revenge of a profligate woman, she pierced with her bodkin that tongue which had described in true and lively colours the vices and enormities of her husbands.

The triumvirs resolved to destroy Cassius, who go

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verned Syria, and Brutus, who commanded in Macedonia. The united army of the latter amounted to seventeen legions. The armies engaged on the plain of B. C. Philippi, in Macedonia. Brutus was successful on his side, and took the camp of Octavianus. Cassius, who was opposed to Antonius, was not so fortunate. thought, deceived by his short sight, that all was lost, and slew himself. A few days afterwards, Brutus, feeling that the fortune of the republic was gone, followed his example, and many other Romans of noble birth and lofty sentiments disdained to survive Brutus, Cassius, and the republic.

War between Octavianus and Antonius.

Sextus Pompeius alone remained to oppose the victors. His power was on the sea, and he long continued to give them uneasiness. Fulvia soon excited disturbance among the triumvirs themselves. Lepidus wavered which side to take; but Octavianus gained over his legions, and deprived him of his rank and power. The unfortunate citizens were the victims of these quarrels between their masters. Octavianus's forty-seven legions must have lands, and the paternal properties of numerous respectable families were confiscated to gratify their cupidity.

Antonius was in Asia. Pacorus the Parthian had invaded the Roman dominions there, but was repelled by Ventidius. Antonius would avenge the honour of Rome by reciprocal invasion. He was ignorant of the nature of the country he entered, and was forced to retire with loss. He went to Egypt, and in the arms of Cleopatra abandoned himself to the licentious indulgences he delighted in, and offended and insulted his wily colleague by divorcing his virtuous sister, Octavia. Both sides prepared for war. Octavianus, whose policy from the commencement had been to identify his own cause and that of the republic, and who, all his life long, affected to govern in the name of the senate, and under the ancient forms, gave out, that he took arms solely

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