"Though the cook was good, "Twas Attic salt (+sermone bono+) that flavoured most the food."
--Jeans.
18-19. +homines visi sumus+ = _I showed myself a man of taste_, i.e.
as host.
21. Sp??da??? ??d?? = lit. _nothing serious_, i.e. _nothing political_. f??????a = _literary chat_.
24-25. ?p?sta?e?a? = _billeting_, as Caesar"s offer to dine with Cicero was equivalent to a command. +odiosam ... molestam+ = _unwelcome, though not disagreeable_.]
B65
GAIUS IULIUS CAESAR. (6)
_The Death of Caesar, 44 B.C._
a.s.sidentem conspirati specie officii circ.u.msteterunt; ilicoque Cimber Tillius, qui primas partes susceperat, quasi aliquid rogaturus propius accessit, renuentique et gestu in aliud tempus differenti ab utroque umero togam apprehendit; deinde clamantem: {5} _Ista quidem vis est_, alter e Cascis aversum vulnerat, paulum infra iugulum. Caesar Cascae brachium arreptum graphio traiecit, conatusque prosilire alio vulnere tardatus est; utque animadvert.i.t undique se strictis pugionibus peti, toga caput {10} obvolvit, simul sinistra manu sinum ad ima crura deduxit, quo honestius caderet etiam inferiore corporis parte velata.
Atque ita tribus et viginti plagis confossus est, uno modo ad primum ictum gemitu sine voce edito; etsi tradiderunt quidam {15} Marco Bruto irruenti dixisse: ?a? s? t?????; Exanimis, diffugientibus cunctis, aliquamdiu iacuit, donec lecticae impositum, dependente brachio, tres servoli domum rettulerunt. Nec in tot vulneribus, ut Antistius medicus existimabat, letale ullum {20} repertum est, nisi quod secundo loco in pectore acceperat.
SUETONIUS, _Divus Iulius_, 82.
+Context.+ After his return from Spain (Sept. 45 B.C.), Caesar was busy with the reconstruction of the Senate, the completion of his vast buildings in Rome, and with other far-reaching projects. But during these months the clouds of ill-will were gathering and threatening him on every side. A conspiracy was formed, of which C. Ca.s.sius, "a lean and hungry man," of a bitter and jealous disposition, seems to have been the real instigator. He persuaded Brutus, a student of life chiefly in books, that liberty could only be gained by murder, and at last it was resolved that the deed should be done on the Ides (15th) of March.
[Linenotes: 8. +graphio+ (??af??? = _scriptorium_) = _a writing-style_.
12. +quo honestius caderet+, cf. Ovid, _Fasti_ ii. 833 (of Lucretia): [Hallam II. 675]
_Tunc quoque iam moriens ne non proc.u.mbat honeste Respicit, haec etiam cura cadentis erat._ 16. ?a? s? t?????; there seems to be no authority for attributing the words _Et tu Brute?_ to Caesar. Shakespeare found them in an earlier play.]
+The Murder of Caesar.+ "It is the most brutal and the most pathetic scene that profane history has to record; it was, as Goethe has said, the most senseless deed that ever was done. It was wholly useless, for it did not and could not save Rome from monarchy. The deed was done by a handful of men, who, pursuing a phantom liberty and following the lead of a personal hatred, slew +the one man who saw the truth of things+."
--W. F.
B66
GAIUS IULIUS CAESAR. (7)
"_There may be many Caesars Ere such another Julius._"--Cymbeline.
A. Fuit in illo ingenium, ratio, memoria, litterae, cura, cogitatio, diligentia; res bello gesserat quamvis rei publicae calamitosas, at tamen magnas; multos annos regnare meditatus magno labore multis periculis quod cogitarat effecerat; muneribus, monumentis, {5} congiariis, epulis mult.i.tudinem imperitam delenierat: suos praemiis, adversarios clementiae specie devinxerat.
CICERO, _Philippica_, ii. 45.
[Linenotes: 4. +regnare meditatus.+ For Caesar monarchy meant the liberation of the Empire.
5. +muneribus+ (sc. +gladiatoriis+) = _gladiatorial shows_.
+monumentis+ = _public buildings_, e.g. his forum, amphitheatre, Temple of Venus Genetrix, and other public works begun (e.g. the _Curia Iulia_) and planned.
6. +congiariis+ (sc. _donis_), orig. a _gift of wine_ (a _congius_ = about 6 pints), then = _wine-money_ (Ger. _Trinkgeld_), and so of any largess.
7-8. +clementiae specie.+ Cic. himself refutes this ungrateful taunt in his _pro Marcello_: _Recte igitur unus invictus est, a quo etiam ipsius victoriae condicio visque devicta est_.]
B.
Sed non in Caesare tantum Nomen erat nec fama ducis, sed nescia virtus Stare loco, solusque pudor non vincere bello.
Acer et indomitus, quo spes quoque ira voca.s.set, 145 Ferre manum et numquam temerando parcere ferro.
Successus urguere suos, instare favori Numinis, impellens quidquid sibi summa petenti Obstaret, gaudensque viam fecisse ruina. 150
LUCAN, _Pharsalia_, i. 143-150.
[Linenotes: 143-144. +tantum nomen+ = _not a mere name alone_, in contrast to Pompeius:--_Stat magni nominis umbra._ -- Haskins.
146. +temerando parcere ferro+ = _shrink from dyeing his sword_ (in blood).--H.]
_Apotheosis of Caesar._
C. Periit s.e.xto et quinquagesimo aetatis anno atque in deorum numerum relatus est, non ore modo decernentium sed et persuasione volgi. Si quidem ludis, quos primos consecrato ei heres Augustus edebat, {20} stella crinita per septem continuos dies fulsit, exoriens circa undecimam horam, creditumque est animam esse Caesaris in caelum recepti; et hac de causa simulacro eius in vertice additur stella.
SUET. _Div. Iul._ 88.
[Linenotes: 21. +stella crinita+ (= ???t??); cf. Verg. _Georg._ iv. 466-8: _Ille_ (= the sun) _etiam exstincto miseratus Caesare Romam c.u.m caput obscura nitidum ferrugine_ (= gloom) _texit, Impiaque aeternam timuerunt saecula noctem._]
"FACTA DUCIS VIVENT, OPEROSAQUE GLORIA RERUM." --_OVID._
"THE HERO"S DEEDS AND HARD-WON FAME SHALL LIVE."
Caesar was the sole creative genius produced by Rome, and the last produced by the ancient world, which accordingly moved on in the path that he marked out for it until its sun went down.
Whatever he undertook and achieved was pervaded and guided by the cool sobriety which const.i.tutes the most marked peculiarity of his genius. To this he owed the power of living energetically in the present, undisturbed either by recollection or by expectation: to this he owed the capacity of acting at any moment with collected vigour, and of applying his whole genius even to the smallest and most incidental enterprise. Gifts such as these could not fail to produce a statesman.
+Caesar as a statesman.+--From early youth Caesar was a statesman in the deepest sense of the term, and his aim was the +political, military, intellectual, and moral regeneration of his own deeply decayed nation, and of the still more deeply decayed h.e.l.lenic nation intimately akin to his own+. According to his original plan, he had proposed to reach his object, like Pericles and Gaius Gracchus, without force of arms, until, reluctantly convinced of the necessity for a military support, he, when already forty years of age, put himself at the head of an army.
+His talent for organisation was marvellous.+--No statesman has ever compelled alliances, no general has ever collected an army out of unyielding and refractory elements with such decision, and kept them together with such firmness, as Caesar displayed in constraining and upholding his coalitions and his legions; never did regent judge his instruments and a.s.sign each to the place appropriate for him with so accurate an eye.
+He was monarch; but he never played the king.+--"I am no king, but Caesar." Even when absolute lord of Rome, he retained the deportment of the party-leader; perfectly pliant and smooth, easy and charming in conversation, complaisant towards everyone, it seemed as if he wished io be nothing but the first among his peers.
Caesar ruled as king of Rome for five years and a half, not half as long as Alexander: in the intervals of seven great campaigns, which allowed him to stay not more than fifteen months altogether in the capital of his empire, +he regulated the destinies of the world for the present and the future+. The outlines were laid down, and thereby the new State was defined for all coming time: the boundless future alone could complete the structure. But precisely because the building was an endless one, the master so long as he lived restlessly added stone to stone, with always the same dexterity and always the same elasticity busy at work.
Thus he worked and created as never did any man before or after him: and as a worker and creator he still, after well-nigh two thousand years, lives in the memory of the nations--the first and withal unique Imperator Caesar.
MOMMSEN.
B67
CICERO AND ANTONIUS.
A. _Peroration of the Second Philippic, 44 B.C._
Respice, quaeso, aliquando rem publicam, M. Antoni: quibus ortus sis, non quibusc.u.m vivas considera: mec.u.m, uti voles: redi c.u.m re publica in gratiam. Sed de te tu videris: ego de me ipso profitebor. Defendi rem publicam adulescens, non {5} deseram senex: contempsi Catilinae gladios, non pertimescam tuos. Quin etiam corpus libenter obtulerim, si repraesentari morte mea libertas civitatis potest: ut aliquando dolor populi Romani pariat, quod iam diu parturit. Etenim si abhinc {10} annos prope viginti hoc ipso in templo negavi posse mortem immaturam esse consulari, quanto verius nunc negabo seni? Mihi vero, patres conscripti, iam etiam optanda mors est, perfuncto rebus eis quas adeptus sum quasque gessi. Duo modo haec {15} opto: unum, ut moriens populum Romanum liberum relinquam--hoc mihi maius ab dis immortalibus dari nihil potest,--alterum, ut ita cuique eveniat ut de re publica quisque mereatur.
CICERO, _Phil._ ii. 46.
[Linenotes: 2. +quibus ortus sis+: espec. his grandfather M. Antonius, the famous orator, whom Cicero held in great esteem.
5. +adulescens+, i.e. in 63 B.C., when he was in his 44th year.
8. +repraesentari+ = _be realised, won now and here_. --Jebb.