Cicero (De Offic. ii. 8) names them. The author of the African War (e. 64) says that Caesar also made money requisitions at Rome, and upon his adversaries, as we may assume. Caesar steadily refused the demands of the people for the abolition of all claims for debt: he said that he was in debt himself, and of course he wished the people to understand that he would not rid himself of his obligations in this dishonest way. But he did something for the Romans. He relieved them, at the expense of the creditors, of all payments for interest of money which had become due since the commencement of the war with Pompeius; and he relieved tenants, at the expense of landlords, of one year's rent up to the amount of five hundred denarii (Dion, 42, c. 51). He also caused a new valuation of properties to be made at the present time, when property, as we may suppose, had fallen in value; and this was done with reference to the law which was passed for the purpose of making a settlement between debtors and creditors after his return from Spain (p. 113).

Caesar satisfied others in a cheaper way. Fufius Calenus, and Caesar's old friend P. Vatinius, who had served him well in the late war, were raised to the consulship during the last few days of the year 47, in which year there were no regular consuls. C. Sallustius, who had been ejected from the senate (B.C. 50) by the censor Appius Claudius (vol. iv. 400), regained admission to the senate by being made a praetor. As men are pleased now with titles, so they were in those days. For the year B.c. 46 ten praetors were appointed, or two more than the old number. The Dictator Sulla increased the number of members of the colleges of Pontifices, of the Augurs, and of the keepers of the Sibylline books to fifteen (vol. ii. 419); and Caesar now added one more member to each of these three colleges. Dion (43. c. 51) states that he afterwards added three members to the Septemviri Epulonum, and it has been conjectured that the addition was made in this year (B.C. 47), but it is impossible to determine from Dion's words, for he speaks (43. c. 51) of one member being

7 Compare Sueton. Caesar, c. 38, who assigns this event to B.C. 46, incorrectly as I think.

8 Macrob. Sat. ii. 3. Cicero's jokes on the short consulship of P. Vatinius.

also added to the Quindecemviri or keeper of the Sibylline books, though in the passage (42. c. 51) he speaks of this having been done already.

These changes were of small importance; but Caesar destroyed the character of the Senate, the governing body of Rome, which for centuries had maintained the dignity of the Roman State, though it was no longer what it had once been. Many of the senators had perished in the civil war, some were in exile, and others in arms against him. The vacant places were given to equites who had served Caesar, centurions, and even to soldiers of lower rank, as Dion says (42. c. 51).

Caesar dealt with the provinces in the same arbitrary manner. M. Brutus, whom Caesar had pardoned after the battle of Pharsalia, had the province of Gallia Cisalpina for the next year B.C. 46, and it is said that he administered it well. Decimus Brutus, who had served under Caesar in Gallia and later also, was again made governor of Transalpine Gallia, where he suppressed a rising of the Bellovaci. Alienus, who had been praetor in B.C. 49, had Sicily; and Servius Sulpicius, the great lawyer, and a friend of Cicero, was made governor of Achaia. Syria was under the administration of Sextus Julius Caesar (p. 291), who was murdered in B.C. 46 by the intrigues of Caecilius Bassus.

9 In a letter (Ad Fam. vi. 6, 10) in which Cicero speaks of the appointment of Sulpicius he also speaks of the "mild and merciful temper" of Caesar. He admires the dignity, justice, and wisdom of Caesar, who never mentions Pompeius, except in the most honourable terms; and, "if," he says, "personally he acted in many respects hardly towards Pompeius," I answer, "that this was the act of arms and of victory, not of Caesar."

CHAPTER XXIV.

THE AFRICAN WAR.

B.C. 48-46.

THE battle of Pharsalia dispersed the partisans of Pompeius. Labienus, and L. Afranius, whom Caesar had set free after his surrender in Spain, escaped to Dyrrhachium; where they were joined by Metellus Scipio, the father-in-law of Pompeius. The fugitives sailed from Dyrrhachium to the fleet at Corcyra, where most of the ships of Pompeius assembled, when the disaster at Pharsalia became known. They fled in terror and confusion, as if they expected that Caesar would surprise them the corn was taken from the granaries and scattered over the streets of Dyrrhachium; and as they looked back from the sea in the darkness of night on the town, it was lighted by the flames of the burning store-ships which the soldiers had fired because the vessels would not follow. The Rhodian fleet deserted and went home (Cicero, De Divin. i. 32). D. Laelius also came to Corcyra with the fleet from Brundisium, and C. Cassius from the Straits of Sicily. Cn. Pompeius, the elder son of Pompeius Magnus, had been on the coast of Epirus with the Egyptian fleet, and had burnt Caesar's vessels at Oricum (p. 157). It is also said that he made an attempt on Brundisium; but when the news of his father's defeat arrived, and the Egyptian fleet sailed home, he joined Cato (Dion, 42. c. 12). M. Octavius also sailed to Corcyra from the Illyrian coast (p. 280). Appian's statement that Cato had been left by Pompeius at Corcyra with another army is not true, as we know; and we cannot accept his assertion that Cato had three hundred ships.

A council of war was held at Corcyra for the appointment

of a leader and for determining what should be done. It was proposed that Cato should take the command, but it is hardly credible, for he had no military ability and he disliked war. Cato, who had only praetorian rank, proposed a man more incompetent than himself, but he was of consular rank, M. Tullius Cicero, who had received the title of Imperator for his Cilician victories, and long after his return from his province had carried about with him his lictors and his withered bays. Finally he had joined Pompeius at Dyrrhachium, where he was useless and made himself disagreeable (Plutarch, Cicero, c. 38). But Cicero was too timid and too prudent to put himself at the head of a desperate cause, and he not only refused the honour, but declared that he would not join the armament.' We have only the authority of Plutarch (Cicero, c. 39) for the statement that Pompeius' son Cnaeus and his friends called Cicero a traitor, and would have killed him if Cato had not interposed. The fact is not improbable, for Cicero's conduct justified the charge of treason to the cause of Pompeius, and perhaps some passages in his letters may allude to this attempt on his life. Cicero found his way to Brundisium, where he passed a wretched time until September of the next year (B.C. 47) when the generous conqueror gave him a pardon which he did not deserve (p. 304).

The narratives of the compilers give a very imperfect account of the movements of the Pompeians after the meeting at Corcyra. Cassius sailed towards Pontus and submitted to Caesar (p. 238). Scipio sailed to the province Africa with the expectation of being supported by Attius Varus (p. 80) and King Juba. Cn. Pompeius, the elder son of Magnus, and Labienus went to Spain, as Appian states (B.c. ii. 87), and got together a force of Iberians and Celtiberians. But Labienus was afterwards engaged in the African war, and it is doubtful if he carried troops thither from Spain; for Plutarch (Cato, c. 56) says that Labienus sailed to Cyrene in Africa and that the citizens refused to receive him. Cato also sailed to Africa, and as he was coasting along fell in with Sextus, the younger son of Magnus, who informed him of his father's death." 1 Letter to Atticus, xi. 7. 3.

? According to Lucanus, Pharsalia, ix. 40, Cato sailed to Phycus, a port in

Cato continued his course to Cyrene, where he was received by the inhabitants. From Cyrene he marched west with his men to join Scipio in the province of Africa. The march was in the winter through the desert, seven days in succession, says Plutarch; but seven days would not bring Cato near to the province of Africa. Lucan says that he sailed from Cyrene as far as the coast near the lake Tritonis, where he was stopped by the bad weather; and he and his men marched the rest of the distance and ultimately reached Leptis the smaller (Lemta) on the coast."

Some time early in B.C. 47 Cato joined his countrymen in the province Africa. Scipio and Varus could not agree, and were severally trying to gain the favour of King Juba, whose arrogance was increased when he saw two Romans of high rank courtinghimself who was a barbarian. Varus was propraetor of the province Africa, and Scipio probably claimed precedence as a proconsul. At the first interview between Juba and Cato, the king placed his seat between Cato and Scipio, but Cato set things right by moving his seat to the other side and thus leaving Scipio in the middle, in the place of honour. Cato, it is said, was invited by the troops to take the command, and Scipio and Varus were willing to give it up to him; but this is not probable. It is neither probable that Cato was invited to command, nor is it probable that Scipio would have consented to serve under him. The same story is told again of Cato refusing this proffered honour, because he was only a propraetor and Scipio was a proconsul. Whatever the facts may have been, Scipio got the command of the troops, and the great name which he bore encouraged most of his followers to expect that he would be as victorious in Africa as his great ancestors had been.

Cyrenaica and thence to Paliurus, east of Phycus. While Cato was at Paliurus, Cornelia and her son Sextus, as the poet says, arrived in the ship in which they had fled from Egypt (p. 119). See the note on Palinurus, ed. Oud.

3 Lucan after conducting Cato's fleet as far as the lake Tritonis and sending him forward by land, invents a visit of Cato to the temple of Jupiter Ammon, which Labienus had earnestly advised. But Cato refused to consult the god (Lucan, ix. 565 &c.) and made a Catonic speech on the occasion. The poet's ignorance of African geography is only equalled by the tedious bombast of his poetry, which is past reading and sometimes past all understanding.