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absolute obedience an army of veterans whom for years he had led to victory and enriched by his liberality; a man who knew how to gain the confidence and affection of his soldiers, ever ready to follow their general in the most hazardous enterprise, and ever confident in the military genius and vigilance of a commander whom they loved and for whom they were ready to die.

CHAPTER II.

CAESAR AT CORFINIUM.

B.C. 49.

CAESAR found at Ariminum the fugitive tribunes with C. Curio and M. Caelius. Suetonius (Caesar, 33) reports that in the presence of these men and before his soldiers, Caesar with tears in his eyes rent his garments and invoked the fidelity of his little army. It is probable that Caesar did address his troops, but the shedding of tears and the tearing of clothes were not in his fashion. He summoned his soldiers in Gallia to join him as he says (c. 8), but, as will afterwards appear (c. 37), only part of them. Pompeius had a larger force than Cæsar; but the recruiting went on slowly, and he did not trust the two legions, which had been taken from the proconsul of Gallia.

While Caesar was still at Ariminum, as he says (B. C. i. 8), there came young L. Caesar, son of the L. Caesar who was one of Caesar's legati (vol. iv. p. 331). After despatching the business on which he came, but we are not told by Cæsar what it was, though it was doubtless a message in the name of the Commonwealth, he delivered a private message from Pompeius to this effect: that Caesar must not view what Pompeius had done for the State as directed against Caesar : he had always regarded the public interest before private considerations: it would be consistent with Caesar's character also to throw away all passion for the sake of the commonwealth, and not to injure the State in attempting to punish the men who were his enemies. The praetor Roscius, who was present, addressed Caesar in nearly the same words, and said that Pompeius had

expressed such opinions. This message did not appear to Caesar (B. C. i. 9.) in any degree to remove the wrongs which he had suffered, but as he had the opportunity of returning an answer, he requested L. Caesar and Roscius to deliver his message to Pompeius, by doing which they might possibly settle a great dispute. Caesar's reply was this: He had always regarded the interests of the State even more than his own life that he was vexed at being deprived by his enemies of the permission which the Roman people had given him (B.C. 52) to be a candidate for the consulship of B.C. 48, without presenting himself at Rome: the withdrawal of this permission would compel him to appear at Rome in the middle of B.C. 49, and shorten his proconsular government by six months: still in the interest of the State he had submitted to this infringement of his rights without complaining; when he wrote to the Senate to propose that all who were at the head of armies should give them up, he could not obtain even this request: the Senate were now raising troops in all parts of Italy, they had in their hands the two legions which were fraudulently taken from him on the pretext of a Parthian war, and the State was in arms: what was the purpose of all this, if it was not for Caesar's ruin? However he would consent to anything for the interest of the commonwealth : let Pompeius go off to his provinces, the Senate disband their armies, let all the armed men in Italy lay down their arms, let the citizens be delivered from fear, let the elections be free from constraint, and the whole administration be put in the hands of the Senate and the Roman people: that all this may be the easier effected and on definite terms and ratified by oath, let Pompeius either come nearer to Caesar or Caesar be allowed to approach Pompeius, and then the disputes may be settled by a conference.

This is all that Caesar states. Cicero (Ad Fam. xvi. 12. 3) adds that if his terms were accepted, Caesar proposed to give up Transalpine Gallia to L. Domitius, and Cisalpine Gallia to Considius Nonianus; that he would go to Rome to be a candidate for the consulship and he did not wish his claims to be considered if he was not present. We accepted his terms, says Cicero, on the condition that he should remove his forces

from the towns which he had occupied, so that the Senate could deliberate at Rome without fear about these terms. Roscius, as Caesar says (i. 10), went to Capua, where he delivered Caesar's message to Pompeius and the consuls. L. Caesar is not mentioned by Caesar, though it was he who brought the proposal of Pompeius. Caesar was mistaken in supposing that Pompeius and the consuls were then at Capua. Cicero saw L. Caesar at Minturnae, on the 23rd of January, on his return from the mission to Caesar, and he speaks most contemptuously of the man and of the absurd message that he brought; if indeed, he says, Caesar did send a message by him (Ad Attic. vii. 13. b. 6). Labienus, 'a great man in my opinion,' says Cicero, came to Teanum Sidicinum on the 22nd of January, for he had deserted Caesar, and he there met Pompeius and the consuls. L. Caesar delivered Caesar's message to Pompeius and the consuls at Teanum on the 23rd. An answer was made in writing, that the proposal of Caesar was accepted, provided he would withdraw his troops from the towns which he had occupied south of the limits of Gallia Cisalpina, and then Pompeius and the consuls would return to Rome and settle all things with the advice of the Senate, as Cicero says (Ad Attic. vii. 14. 1). As Caesar (c. 10) reports the answer, it was this: Caesar must return into Gallia Cisalpina, quit Ariminum and disband his armies; and then Pompeius would go to his Spanish provinces in the meantime, until security was given that Caesar would do what he proposed, the consuls and Pompeius would continue to raise troops. It was not fair, Caesar remarks, to require him to quit Ariminum and to return to his province, while Pompeius kept his provinces and the two legions which did not belong to him; to require Caesar's army to be disbanded and to continue raising troops; for Pompeius to promise to go to his province, and not to name a day when he would go; and the fact of Pompeius not naming a time for the proposed conference destroyed all hope of peace.

L. Caesar was sent with the written answer to Caesar's proposals, and it was copied and posted up in Rome. Cicero complains that Pompeius, who wrote well, had intrusted to Cicero's friend P. Sestius the composition of so important a

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letter, which was intended to be communicated to all the citizens: he had never seen anything more truly in Sestius' style (Ad Attic. vii. 17. 2). On receiving the answer Caesar sent M. Antonius with five cohorts from Ariminum over the Apennines to Arretium (Arezzo): he stayed at Ariminum himself and began to raise troops. He also occupied Pisaurum (Pesaro), Fanum (Fano), and Ancona, each with a single cohort (B. C. i. 11).

We have from Caesar and Cicero perhaps a sufficient statement of the final negotiations about settling the quarrel between Caesar and the Senate. The failure of these negotiations was followed by a war, the result of which brought about the inevitable revolution, which had long been foreseen by prudent men; and though the great change would certainly have happened some time, it seems probable that if it had been deferred, the consequences to Rome and to us who now live in Europe might not have been exactly the same. This civil war is the most important event in the long history of Rome, for it led the way to the foundation of a dynasty of Caesars by a young man not inferior to Caesar in ability, but of a very different character.

There is some difficulty in determining the order of events at this critical time. I am not sure that Caesar has accurately observed the order in his narrative, and we have no contemporary evidence for correcting him except that of Cicero, who is often careless about facts and was now so frightened that he hardly knew what he wrote. Caesar's words literally state that he did not seize the four towns Arretium, Pisaurum, Fanum, and Ancona until he had received the final answer to his proposals (c. 12). Cicero writes to Tiro (Ad Fam. xvi. 12. 2) that "we left Rome after Caesar had occupied Ariminum, Pisaurum, Ancona, and Arretium;" and he also speaks of the final answer of the Senate having been sent to Caesar, and of their not yet knowing whether Caesar would abide by his own terms, as Cicero expresses it. This letter was written on the 27th of January from Capua. Now we have Cicero's own statement, that "we" left Rome on the 18th of January (Ad Attic. ix. 10. 4),' and after Caesar had

This is a valuable letter. It contains extracts from many letters of Atticus
VOL. V.

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