CHAPTER XXVIII.

THE TRIUMPH.

B.C. 46.

BEFORE Caesar arrived at Rome the Senate showed their readiness to receive him as master. They decreed a thanksgiving (supplicatio) of forty days for the victory of Thapsus and the overthrow of the Senatorian party: this was twice the number of days which had been voted after Caesar's capture of Alesia. It was also decreed that his triumphal car should be drawn by white horses, and that he should be attended by seventy-two lictors, which would represent his three dictatorships. He was also declared to be Praefect of morals for three years, as if the name of Censor was not honourable enough, and dictator for ten years in succession. A curule seat, or seat of office was assigned to him in the senate, where he would sit with the consuls, and give his opinion first. By making him Censor in fact, though not in name, and giving him no colleague, and by allowing him to declare his opinion first, the Senate put the supreme power into his hands. At the games in the circus it was declared that he should give the signal for the beginning of the ceremony, as a consul used to do when a consul was present It was also decreed that his car should be placed in the Capitol opposite to that of Jupiter used in the games of the Circus, and that a bronze statue of Caesar should be set on a figure of the earth with the inscription, "He is a demigod." We know that Octavianus after Caesar's death put this inscription on the basis of a statue, but it is hardly credible that Caesar received this vile adulation in his lifetime. Dion states (43. c. 21) that Caesar after

wards erased the word demigod. It was also decreed, it is said, that the name of Caesar should be inscribed on the Capitol in place of that of Catulus, as if Caesar had completed the building, though the fact is that in his praetorship he attempted to raise suspicion about the honesty of Catulus, who had superintended the work, and he proposed that the name of Pompeius should be inscribed on the temple (vol. iii. p. 361). "I have reported," says Dion, " only so much as this, not because other things were not voted, but because Caesar did not accept more than I have mentioned" (Dion Cassius, 43. c. 14, and 42. c. 20).

Cicero was expecting Caesar's arrival with some uneasiness. It was not certain where he would land or when. Cicero wrote to his friend M. Varro (Ad Fam. ix. 7) a short letter, in which his meaning is only half expressed, but he says enough to show that he was very anxious to secure his safety; and he says that he continues to sup with those who are now in power, Caesar's friends. Perhaps Caesar landed at Ostia, as Hirtius, Balbus, and Oppius advised, in order to avoid meeting a great crowd. On his arrival he addressed the Senate and then the people, of course outside of the city. Dion has reported what he said (43. c. 15-18), but we conclude that the speech is Dion's own work, though it is possible that he found some record of Caesar's address. The object of Caesar's speech was to remove all fear about his intentions and to assure both the Senate and the people of his wish to do all that he could for the interest of the State.

In the month of August of the unreformed Calendar Caesar celebrated his four triumphs on four different days, for his conquest of Gallia, Egypt, Pontus, and Africa. In name they were triumphs over barbarous nations, but in fact triumphs over his own people. The Gallic triumph was the first and greatest, for it commemorated the conquest of a powerful nation which had often threatened Italy. The day of a triumph was a day of licence for the Roman soldiers; and Caesar heard the jokes and songs of his men about the imputed scandal of his residence with the Bithynian king Nicomedes

1 It seems however that Dion is mistaken about the erasure of the name of Catulus. Tacit. Hist. iii. 72.

VOL. V.

B b

(vol. ii. p. 380) when he was a young man, and his amours with Cleopatra and other women. Dion reports (43. c. 20) that the whole body of soldiers ended with singing, “If you shall do right, you will suffer: if you shall do wrong, you will be a king;" which he explains as signifying, “If you restore to the people the power which you have usurped, you will be punished for your illegal acts: if you keep it, you will be king." In the Gallic triumph there appeared a representation of Massilia, the old friend and ally of Rome. The figures of the Rhine, the Rhone, and a golden image of the Ocean reminded the spectators of the Gallic and German victories and of the invasion of Britain. But the great glory of the triumph and the shame of Caesar was the Gallic chief Vercingetorix, the man who was Caesar's noblest opponent in Gallia and had been his prisoner since the year 52 B.C. After the triumph he was put to death. Cicero observes (In Verrem, v. 30) on this barbarous custom: "But those who triumph, and for this occasion keep hostile leaders alive that the Roman people may enjoy the noblest spectacle and the reward of victory by seeing their enemies in the procession, when the cars begin to turn from the Forum to the Capitol, order the men to be led to prison, and the same day brings to the conquerors the termination of their military power and to the vanquished the end of their life." When the procession reached the place named the Velabrum, there was an unfavourable omen: Caesar's car broke down near the Temple of Fortune erected by L. Lucullus, and he was nearly thrown from his seat, and obliged to mount another car. When he had ascended the Capitol, he crept on his knees from the Capitoline area up the steps of Jupiter's temple, as the Emperor Claudius afterwards did on a like occasion. In the Egyptian triumph there appeared in chains a woman and a princess, Arsinoe, the sister of Cleopatra, and to Caesar a great disgrace. A statue of the Nile and a figure of the burning Pharos or lighthouse of Alexandria were symbols of the war in Egypt. The deaths of Achillas and Pothinus were also represented. In the Pontic triumph there was a picture of Pharnaces flying from the

Pompeius, on the occasion of his great triumph did not order a single person to be put to death (vol. iii. 387).

battle, and on a tablet were written the words, Veni, Vidi, Vici. In the African triumph there appeared a young boy, a son of King Juba. This youth, also named Juba, was afterwards a king himself, and a most laborious and learned writer.

Appian (B. C. ii. 101) states that Caesar did not profess to triumph over his fellow-citizens, because it would have been unbecoming to himself and an insult to the Roman people; but there appeared in the processions representations of all the events of the civil wars and portraits of his enemies except Pompeius. The people saw with sorrow the picture of the commander L. Scipio stabbing himself and jumping into the sea, Petreius killing himself after his last banquet, and Cato like a wild beast tearing out his own bowels. It is difficult to believe that Caesar allowed such pictures to appear in his triumph; and Appian's statement is not confirmed by any other authority.

Gold and silver, the richest booty of war, was the most attractive part of a triumph, for it was a promise of prizemoney to the soldier. Sixty thousand talents of metal, and one half-talent, says Appian, and 2822 golden crowns, weighing 20,414 pounds were exhibited. This enormous amount of the precious metal may be an exaggeration; but Suetonius charges Caesar with having been a money collector from the commencement of his career and having plundered Gallia most unmercifully; and Dion says the same.

3

After the four triumphs came the feast, when the people were richly entertained at 22,000 triclinia or couches and drank the best wines. It was after the feast, as Dion states, that Caesar was conducted to his home by elephants which carried lighted torches. Next, came the distribution of money. At the commencement of the civil war Caesar had promised seventy-five denarii to every citizen who was entitled to an allowance of corn: he now paid the money, and twentyfive additional denarii to indemnify these worthy citizens for

3 A triclinium is a sofa which would hold three persons at table.

4 See Drumann (Julii, p. 615, note 49), and his remarks on Sueton., Caesar, c. 37, who places the torchlight procession of the elephants on the day of the Gallic triumph.

the delay. Every man, who was on this list of paupers, received also ten measures (modii) of wheat and ten pounds (librae) of oil.

Every soldier received 5000 denarii; a centurion received 10,000; a tribune and praefect of cavalry 20,000 denarii. Suetonius also speaks of lands being assigned to veterans, which may have been done some time in this year, for Cicero speaks of some land measurement being made at this time (Ad Fam. ix. 17). The soldiers were dissatisfied with the cost of the triumph, because they wished to have the money themselves, and they made a disturbance, but Caesar seized one of them with his own hands and ordered him to be put to death."

In B.C. 54 Caesar had bought by his agents at Rome ground for erecting a new Forum (vol. iv. p. 270). The work was interrupted during the Civil Wars, but it was now finished, and there was added to the original design a temple of Venus Genetrix, from whom Caesar claimed his descent; and he had vowed this temple before the battle of Pharsalia. The Forum and temple were dedicated in September. The statue of the goddess was not yet ready, but the model made by Arcesilaus was placed in the temple, which was also adorned with pictures, two of them by the Byzantine painter Timomachus, Ajax and Medea, for which Caesar gave eighty talents.

8

The dedication was followed by the games in memory of Caesar's daughter Julia. A wooden theatre was built, which was named an amphitheatre because it was surrounded by seats and had no stage (scena) like a theatre. Dion remarks (43.

5 Suetonius adds that Caesar remitted the annual rents (habitationem) payable at Rome up to the amount of two thousand sesterces, and in Italy those rents which were not above five hundred sesterces (see p. 308, note 6).

6 Appian, B. C. ii. 102, Dion, 43, c. 21; and compare the passage of Suetonius, c. 37.

7 Dion (43. c. 24) states that two other men were put to death in a manner of religious ceremony, but he does not know, as he says, the reason of the sacrifice. They were sacrificed in the Campus Martius by the Pontifices and the Flamen Martialis, and their heads were placed on the Basileion (comp. Appian, B. C. 148). See the note of Reimarus on this passage.

8 As to the statue of Cleopatra being also placed in this temple, see Appian B.C. ii. 102, Dion 51. c. 22, and the note of Reimarus, and Plutarch, Antonius, c. 86.

9 Dion does not say where the wooden amphitheatre was built. Lipsius