A General History for Colleges and High Schools

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WAR WITH THE MEDITERRANEAN PIRATES (66 B.C.).--The Roman republic was now
threatened by a new danger from the sea. The Mediterranean was swarming
with pirates. Roman conquests in Africa, Spain, and especially in Greece
and Asia Minor, had caused thousands of adventurous spirits from those
maritime countries to flee to their ships, and seek a livelihood by
preying upon the commerce of the seas. The cruelty and extortions of the
Roman governors had also driven large numbers to the same course of life.
These corsairs had banded themselves into a sort of government, and held
possession of numerous strongholds--four hundred, it is said--in Cilicia,
Crete, and other countries. With a full thousand swift ships they scoured
the waters of the Mediterranean, so that no merchantman could spread her
sails in safety. They formed a floating empire, which Michelet calls "a
wandering Carthage, which no one knew where to seize, and which floated
from Spain to Asia."

These buccaneers, the Vikings of the South, made descents upon the coast
everywhere, plundered villas and temples, attacked and captured cities,
and sold the inhabitants as slaves in the various slave-markets of the
Roman world. They carried off merchants and magistrates from the Appian
Way itself, and held them for ransom. At last the grain-ships of Sicily
and Africa were intercepted, and Rome was threatened with the alternative
of starvation or the paying of an enormous ransom.

The Romans now bestirred themselves. Pompey was invested with dictatorial
power for three years over the Mediterranean and all its coasts for fifty
miles inland. An armament of five hundred ships and one hundred thousand
men was intrusted to his command. The great general acted with his
characteristic energy. Within forty days he had swept the pirates from the
Western Mediterranean, and in forty-nine more hunted them from all the
waters east of Italy, captured their strongholds in Cilicia, and settled
the twenty thousand prisoners that fell into his hands in various colonies
in Asia Minor and Greece. Pompey's vigorous and successful conduct of this
campaign against the pirates gained him great honor and reputation.

POMPEY AND THE MITHRIDATIC WAR.--In the very year that Pompey suppressed
the pirates (66 B.C.), he was called to undertake a more difficult task.
Mithridates the Great, led on by his ambition and encouraged by the
discontent created throughout the Eastern provinces by Roman rapacity and
misrule, was again in arms against Rome. He had stirred almost all Asia
Minor to revolt. The management of the war was eventually intrusted to
Pompey, whose success in the war of the pirates had aroused unbounded
enthusiasm for him.

In a great battle in Lesser Armenia, Pompey almost annihilated the army of
Mithridates. The king fled from the field, and, after seeking in vain for
a refuge in Asia Minor, sought an asylum beyond the Caucasus Mountains,
whose bleak barriers interposed their friendly shield between him and his
pursuers. Desisting from the pursuit, Pompey turned south and conquered
Syria, Phoenicia, and Coele-Syria, which countries he erected into a Roman
province. Still pushing southward, the conqueror entered Palestine, and
after a short siege captured Jerusalem (63 B.C.).

[Illustration: MITHRIDATES VI. (The Great) ]

While Pompey was thus engaged, Mithridates was straining every energy to
raise an army among the Scythian tribes with which to carry out a most
daring project. He proposed to cross Europe and fall upon Italy from the
north. A revolt on the part of his son Pharnaces ruined all his plans and
hopes; and the disappointed monarch, to avoid falling into the hands of
the Romans, took his own life (63 B.C.). His death removed one of the most
formidable enemies that Rome had ever encountered. Hamilcar, Hannibal, and
Mithridates were the three great names that the Romans always pronounced
with respect and dread.

POMPEY'S TRIUMPH.--After regulating the affairs of the different states
and provinces in the East, Pompey set out on his return to Rome, where he
enjoyed such a triumph as never before had been seen since Rome had become
a city. The spoils of all the East were borne in the procession; 322
princes walked as captives before the triumphal chariot of the conqueror;
legends upon the banners proclaimed that he had conquered 21 kings,
captured 1000 strongholds, 900 towns, and 800 ships, and subjugated more
than 12,000,000 people; and that he had put into the treasury more than
$25,000,000, besides doubling the regular revenues of the state. He
boasted that three times he had triumphed, and each time for the conquest
of a continent--first for Africa, then for Europe, and now for Asia, which
completed the conquest of the world.

THE CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE.--While the legions were absent from Italy with
Pompey in the East, a most daring conspiracy against the government was
formed at Rome. Catiline, a ruined spendthrift, had gathered a large
company of profligate young nobles, weighed down with debt and desperate
like himself, and had deliberately planned to murder the consuls and the
chief men of the state, and to plunder and burn the capital. The offices
of the new government were to be divided among the conspirators. They
depended upon receiving aid from Africa and Spain, and proposed to invite
to their standard the gladiators in the various schools of Italy, as well
as slaves and criminals. The proscriptions of Sulla were to be renewed,
and all debts were to be cancelled.

Fortunately, all the plans of the conspirators were revealed to the consul
Cicero, the great orator. The Senate immediately clothed the consuls with
dictatorial power with the usual formula, that they should take care that
the republic received no harm. The gladiators were secured; the city walls
were manned; and at every point the capital and state were armed against
the "invisible foe." Then in the Senate-chamber, with Catiline himself
present, Cicero exposed the whole conspiracy in a famous philippic, known
as "The First Oration against Catiline." The senators shrank from the
conspirator, and left the seats about him empty. After a feeble effort to
reply to Cicero, overwhelmed by a sense of his guilt, and the cries of
"traitor" and "parricide" from the senators, Catiline fled from the
chamber, and hurried out of the city to the camp of his followers, in
Etruria. In a desperate battle fought near Pistoria (62 B.C.), he was
slain with many of his followers. His head was borne as a trophy to Rome.
Cicero was hailed as the "Saviour of his Country."

CAESAR, CRASSUS, AND POMPEY.--Although the conspiracy of Catiline had
failed, it was very easy to foresee that the downfall of the Roman
republic was near at hand. Indeed, from this time on only the name
remains. The basis of the institutions of the republic--the old Roman
virtue, integrity, patriotism, and faith in the gods--was gone, having
been swept away by the tide of luxury, selfishness, and immorality
produced by the long series of foreign conquests and robberies in which
the Roman people had been engaged. The days of liberty at Rome were over.
From this time forward the government was really in the hands of ambitious
and popular leaders, or of corrupt combinations and "rings." Events gather
about a few great names, and the annals of the republic become
biographical rather than historical.

There were now in the state three men--Caesar, Crassus, and Pompey--who
were destined to shape affairs. Caius Julius Caesar was born in the year
100 B.C. Although descended from an old patrician family, still his
sympathies, and an early marriage to the daughter of Cinna, one of the
adherents of Marius, led him early to identify himself with the Marian, or
democratic party. In every way Caesar courted public favor. He lavished
enormous sums upon public games and tables. His debts are said to have
amounted to 25,000,000 sesterces ($1,250,000). His popularity was
unbounded. A successful campaign in Spain had already made known to
himself, as well as to others, his genius as a commander.

Crassus belonged to the senatorial, or aristocratic party. He owed his
influence to his enormous wealth, being one of the richest men in the
Roman world. His property was estimated at 7100 talents (about
$7,500,000).

With Pompey and his achievements we are already familiar. His influence
throughout the Roman world was great; for, in settling and reorganizing
the many countries he subdued, he had always taken care to reconstruct
them in his own interest, as well as in that of the republic. The offices,
as we have seen, were filled with his friends and adherents (see p. 285).
This patronage had secured for him incalculable authority in the
provinces. His veteran legionaries, too, were naturally devoted to the
general who had led them so often to victory.

THE FIRST TRIUMVIRATE.--What is known as the First Triumvirate rested on
the genius of Caesar, the wealth of Crassus, and the achievements of
Pompey. It was a coalition or private arrangement entered into by these
three men for the purpose of securing to themselves the control of public
affairs. Each pledged himself to work for the interests of the others.
Caesar was the manager of the "ring," and through the aid of his colleagues
secured the consulship (59 B.C.).

CAESAR'S CONQUESTS IN GAUL AND BRITAIN.--At the end of his consulship, the
administration of the provinces of Cisalpine and Transalpine Gaul was
assigned to Caesar. Already he was revolving in his mind plans for seizing
supreme power. Beyond the Alps the Gallic and Germanic tribes were in
restless movement. He saw there a grand field for military exploits, which
should gain for him such glory and prestige as, in other fields, had been
won and were now enjoyed by Pompey. With this achieved, and with a veteran
army devoted to his interests, he might hope easily to attain that
position at the head of affairs towards which his ambition was urging him.

In the spring of 58 B.C. alarming intelligence from beyond the Alps caused
Caesar to hasten from Rome into Transalpine Gaul. Now began a series of
eight brilliant campaigns directed against the various tribes of Gaul,
Germany, and Britain. In his _Commentaries_ Caesar himself has left us
a faithful and graphic account of all the memorable marches, battles, and
sieges that filled the years between 58 and 50 B.C. The year 55 B.C.
marked two great achievements. Early in the spring of this year Caesar
constructed a bridge across the Rhine, and led his legions against the
Germans in their native woods and swamps. In the autumn of the same year
he crossed, by means of hastily constructed ships, the channel that
separates the mainland from Britain, and after maintaining a foothold upon
that island for two weeks withdrew his legions into Gaul for the winter.
The following season he made another invasion of Britain; but, after some
encounters with the fierce barbarians, recrossed to the mainland without
having established any permanent garrisons in the island. Almost one
hundred years passed away before the natives of Britain were again
molested by the Romans (see p. 311).

In the year 52 B.C., while Caesar was absent in Italy, a general revolt
occurred among the Gallic tribes. It was a last desperate struggle for the
recovery of their lost independence. Vercingetorix, chief of the Arverni,
was the leader of the insurrection. For a time it seemed as though the
Romans would be driven from the country. But Caesar's despatch and military
genius saved the province to the republic.

In his campaigns in Gaul, Caesar had subjugated three hundred tribes,
captured eight hundred cities, and slain a million of barbarians--one
third of the entire population of the country. Another third he had taken
prisoners. Great enthusiasm was aroused at Rome by these victories. "Let
the Alps now sink," exclaimed Cicero: "the gods raised them to shelter
Italy from the barbarians: they are now no longer needed."

RESULTS OF THE GALLIC WARS.--The most important result of the Gallic wars
of Caesar was the Romanizing of Gaul. The country was opened to Roman
traders and settlers, who carried with them the language, customs, and
arts of Italy.

Another result of the conquest was the checking of the migratory movements
of the German tribes, which gave Graeco-Roman civilization time to become
thoroughly rooted, not only in Gaul, but also in Spain and other lands.

RIVALRY BETWEEN CAESAR AND POMPEY: CAESAR CROSSES THE RUBICON.--While Caesar
was in the midst of his Transalpine wars, Crassus was leading an army
against the Parthians, hoping to rival there the brilliant conquests of
Caesar in Gaul. But his army was almost annihilated by the Parthian
cavalry, and he himself was slain (54 B.C.). His captors, so it is said,
poured molten gold down his throat, that he might be sated with the metal
which he had so coveted during life. In the death of Crassus, Caesar lost
his stanchest friend, one who had never failed him, and whose wealth had
been freely used for his advancement.

The world now belonged to Caesar and Pompey. That the insatiable ambition
of these two rivals should sooner or later bring them into collision was
inevitable. Their alliance in the triumvirate was simply one of selfish
convenience, not of friendship. While Caesar was carrying on his campaigns
in Gaul, Pompey was at Rome watching jealously the growing reputation of
his great rival. He strove, by a princely liberality, to win the
affections of the common people. On the Field of Mars he erected an
immense theatre with seats for forty thousand spectators. He gave
magnificent games, and set public tables; and when the interest of the
people in the sports of the Circus flagged, he entertained them with
gladiatorial combats. In a similar manner Caesar strengthened himself with
the people for the struggle which he plainly foresaw. He sought in every
way to ingratiate himself with the Gauls; increased the pay of his
soldiers; conferred the privileges of Roman citizenship upon the
inhabitants of different cities in his province; and sent to Rome enormous
sums of gold to be expended in the erection of temples, theatres, and
other public structures, and in the celebration of games and shows that
should rival in magnificence those given by Pompey.

The terrible condition of affairs at the capital favored the ambition of
Pompey. So selfish and corrupt were the members of the Senate, so dead to
all virtue and to every sentiment of patriotism were the people, that even
such patriots as Cato and Cicero saw no hope for the maintenance of the
republic. The former favored the appointment of Pompey as sole consul for
one year, which was about the same thing as making him dictator. "It is
better," said Cato, "to choose a master than to wait for the tyrant whom
anarchy will impose upon us." The "tyrant" in his and everybody's mind was
Caesar.

Pompey now broke with Caesar, and attached himself again to the old
aristocratic party, which he had deserted for the alliance and promises of
the triumvirate. The death at this time of his wife Julia, the daughter of
Caesar, severed the bonds of relationship at the same moment that those of
ostensible friendship were broken.

The Senate, hostile to Caesar, now issued a decree that he should resign
his office, and disband his Gallic legions by a stated day. The crisis had
now come. Caesar ordered his legions to hasten from Gaul into Italy.
Without waiting for their arrival, at the head of a small body of veterans
that he had with him at Ravenna, he crossed the Rubicon, a little stream
that marked the boundary of his province. This was a declaration of war.
As he plunged into the river, he exclaimed, "The die is cast."

THE CIVIL WAR OF CAESAR AND POMPEY (49-48 B.C.).--The bold movement of
Caesar produced great consternation at Rome. Realizing the danger of delay,
Caesar, without waiting for the Gallic legions to join him, marched
southward. One city after another threw open its gates to him; legion
after legion went over to his standard. Pompey and the Senate hastened
from Rome to Brundisium, and thence, with about twenty-five thousand men,
fled across the Adriatic into Greece. Within sixty days Caesar made himself
undisputed master of all Italy.

Pompey and Caesar now controlled the Roman world. It was large, but not
large enough for both these ambitious men. As to which was likely to
become sole master, it were difficult for one watching events at that time
to foresee. Caesar held Italy, Illyricum, and Gaul, with the resources of
his own genius and the idolatrous attachment of his soldiers; Pompey
controlled Spain, Africa, Sicily, Sardinia, Greece, and the provinces of
Asia, with the prestige of his great name and the indefinite resources of
the East.

Caesar's first care was to pacify Italy. His moderation and prudence won
all classes to his side. Many had looked to see the terrible scenes of the
days of Marius and Sulla re-enacted. Caesar, however, soon gave assurance
that life and property should be held sacred. He needed money; but, to
avoid laying a tax upon the people, he asked for the treasure kept beneath
the Capitol. Legend declared that this gold was the actual ransom-money
which Brennus had demanded of the Romans, and which Camillus had saved by
his timely appearance (see p. 241). It was esteemed sacred, and was never
to be used save in case of another Gallic invasion. When Caesar attempted
to get possession of the treasure, the tribune Metellus prevented him; but
Caesar impatiently brushed him aside, saying, "The fear of a Gallic
invasion is over: I have subdued the Gauls."

With order restored in Italy, Caesar's next movement was to gain control of
the wheat-fields of Sicily, Sardinia, and Africa. A single legion brought
over Sardinia without resistance to the side of Caesar. Cato, the
lieutenant of Pompey, fled from before Curio out of Sicily. In Africa,
however, the lieutenant of Caesar sustained a severe defeat, and the
Pompeians held their ground there until the close of the war. Caesar,
meanwhile, had subjugated Spain. In forty days the entire peninsula was
brought under his authority. Massilia had ventured to close her gates
against the conqueror; but a brief siege forced the city to capitulate.
Caesar was now free to turn his forces against Pompey in the East.

THE BATTLE OF PHARSALUS (48 B.C.).--From Brundisium Caesar embarked his
legions for Epirus. The armies of the rivals met upon the plains of
Pharsalia, in Thessaly. The adherents of Pompey were so confident of an
easy victory that they were already disputing about the offices at Rome,
and were renting the most eligible houses fronting the public squares of
the capital. The battle was at length joined. It proved Pompey's Waterloo.
His army was cut to pieces. He himself fled from the field, and escaped to
Egypt. Just as he was landing there, he was assassinated.

The head of the great general was severed from his body; and when Caesar,
who was pressing after Pompey in hot pursuit, landed in Egypt, the bloody
trophy was brought to him. He turned from the sight with generous tears.
It was no longer the head of his rival, but of his old associate and son-
in-law. He ordered the assassins to be executed, and directed that fitting
obsequies should be performed over the body.

CLOSE OF THE CIVIL WAR.--Caesar was detained at Alexandria nine months in
settling a dispute respecting the throne of Egypt. After a severe contest
he overthrew the reigning Ptolemy, and secured the kingdom to the
celebrated Cleopatra and a younger brother. Intelligence was now brought
from Asia Minor that Pharnaces, son of Mithridates the Great, was inciting
a revolt among the peoples of that region. Caesar met the Pontic king at
Zela, defeated him, and in five days put an end to the war. His laconic
message to the Senate, announcing his victory, is famous. It ran thus:
_Veni, vidi, vici_,--"I came, I saw, I conquered."

Caesar now hurried back to Italy, and thence proceeded to Africa, which the
friends of the old republic had made their last chief rallying-place. At
the great battle of Thapsus (46 B.C.) they were crushed. Fifty thousand
lay dead upon the field. Cato, who had been the very life and soul of the
army, refusing to outlive the republic, took his own life.

CAESAR'S TRIUMPH.--Caesar was now virtually lord of the Roman world.
Although he refrained from assuming the title of king, no Eastern monarch
was ever possessed of more absolute power, or surrounded by more abject
flatterers and sycophants. He was invested with all the offices and
dignities of the state. The Senate made him perpetual dictator, and
conferred upon him the powers of censor, consul, and tribune, with the
titles of Pontifex Maximus and Imperator (whence Emperor). "He was to sit
in a golden chair in the Senate-house, his image was to be borne in the
procession of the gods, and the seventh month of the year was changed in
his honor from Quintilis to Julius [whence our July]."

His triumph celebrating his many victories far eclipsed in magnificence
anything that Rome had before witnessed. In the procession were led
captive princes from all parts of the world. Beneath his standards marched
soldiers gathered out of almost every country beneath the heavens.
Seventy-five million dollars of treasure were displayed. Splendid games
and tables attested the liberality of the conqueror. Sixty thousand
couches were set for the multitudes. The shows of the theatre and the
combats of the arena followed one another in an endless round. "Above the
combats of the amphitheatre floated for the first time the awning of silk,
the immense velarium of a thousand colors, woven from the rarest and
richest products of the East, to protect the people from the sun"
(Gibbon).

CAESAR AS A STATESMAN.--Caesar was great as a general, yet greater, if
possible, as a statesman. The measures which he instituted evince profound
political sagacity and surprising breadth of view. He sought to reverse
the jealous and narrow policy of Rome in the past, and to this end rebuilt
both Carthage and Corinth, and founded numerous colonies in all the
different provinces, in which he settled about one hundred thousand of the
poorer citizens of the capital. Upon some of the provincials he conferred
full Roman citizenship, and upon others Latin rights (see p. 246, note),
and thus strove to blend the varied peoples and races within the
boundaries of the empire in a real nationality, with community of
interests and sympathies. He reformed the calendar so as to bring the
festivals once more in their proper seasons, and provided against further
confusion by making the year consist of 365 days, with an added day for
every fourth or leap year.

Besides these achievements, Caesar projected many vast undertakings, which
the abrupt termination of his life prevented his carrying into execution.
Among these was his projected conquest of the Parthians and the Germans.
He proposed, in revenge for the defeat and death of his friend Crassus, to
break to pieces the Parthian empire; then, sweeping with an army around
above the Euxine, to destroy the dreaded hordes of Scythia; and then,
falling upon the German tribes in the rear, to crush their power forever,
and thus relieve the Roman empire of their constant threat. He was about
to set out on the expedition against the Parthians, when he was struck
down by assassins.

THE DEATH OF CAESAR.--Caesar had his bitter personal enemies, who never
ceased to plot his downfall. There were, too, sincere lovers of the old
republic, who longed to see restored the liberty which the conqueror had
overthrown. The impression began to prevail that Caesar was aiming to make
himself king. A crown was several times offered him in public by Mark
Antony; but, seeing the manifest displeasure of the people, he each time
pushed it aside. Yet there is no doubt that secretly he desired it. It was
reported that he proposed to rebuild the walls of Troy, whence the Roman
race had sprung, and make that ancient capital the seat of the new Roman
empire. Others professed to believe that the arts and charms of the
Egyptian Cleopatra, who had borne him a son at Rome, would entice him to
make Alexandria the centre of the proposed kingdom. So many, out of love
for Rome and the old republic, were led to enter into a conspiracy against
the life of Caesar with those who sought to rid themselves of the dictator
for other and personal reasons.

The Ides (the 15th day) of March, 44 B.C., upon which day the Senate
convened, witnessed the assassination. Seventy or eighty conspirators,
headed by Cassius and Brutus, both of whom had received special favors
from the hands of Caesar, were concerned in the plot. The soothsayers must
have had some knowledge of the plans of the conspirators, for they had
warned Caesar to "beware of the Ides of March." On his way to the Senate-
meeting that day, a paper warning him of his danger was thrust into his
hand; but, not suspecting its urgent nature, he did not open it. As he
entered the assembly chamber he observed the astrologer Spurinna, and
remarked carelessly to him, referring to his prediction, "The Ides of
March have come." "Yes," replied Spurinna, "but not gone."

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