himself the idol of his troops by sharing with them every danger, and by his great liberality, affability, and clemency. 5. Pompey, who had remained all this time in Rome, was alarmed on account of the great reputation of his rival, and endeavored to thwart his views. The term of Cæsar's government being about to expire, he applied to the senate to be continued in his authority; but this body, being devoted to Pompey, denied his demand. He now resolved to support his claim by force of arms, and a civil war was the consequence. The consuls and most of the senators were the friends of Pompey. Cæsar had on his side a victorious army devoted to his cause, and the great body of Roman citizens, whom he had won by his liberality. 6. Pompey had been careful to place in the provinces governors devoted to himself; but he had no army, and took no measures to raise one. Cicero, surprised at his negligence in his preparations, asked him with what troops he expected to oppose Cæsar? "I need only stamp my foot on the ground," he replied, "and an army will arise." 7. Cæsar, having bound his army to him by an oath of fidelity, led it over the Alps, and stopping at Ravenna, wrote to the Roman government, offering to resign all command, in case Pompey would do the same; but the senate decreed that he should lay down his government and disband his forces, within a limited time, under the penalty of being declared an enemy to the commonwealth. Cæsar marched his army to the banks of the Rubicon, a small river separating Italy from Cisalpine Gaul, and forming the limits of his command; and to pass which with an army, or even a single cohort, had been declared by the senate a sacrilege and parricide. On arriving at this famous stream, he is said to have hesitated, impressed with the greatness of the enterprise, and its fearful consequences; and to have said to Pollio, one of his generals, "If I pass this river, what miseries I shall bring on my country! and if I do not pass it, I am undone." Soon after, he exclaimed, "The die is cast ;" and putting spurs to his horse, he passed the stream, followed by his soldiers. 8. The news of this movement excited the utmost terror in Rome. The citizens reproached Pompey with his supineness. "Where now," said a senator, in derision, "is the army that is to rise up at your command? Let us see if it will come by stamping." Pompey himself was alarmed, and aware that he was unable to resist Cæsar in Rome, where the great body of the citizens were devoted to him, he led his forces to Cap'ua, where he had two legions; thence he proceeded to Brundu'sium, and passed over to Dyrrach'ium, in Macedonia. He was followed by the consuls and a great part of the scnate, and took measures to levy troops both in Italy and Greece. 9. Cæsar having made himself master of Italy in 60 days, directed his course to Rome, entered the city triumphantly amidst the acclamations of the people, seized the public treasury, and possessed himself of the supreme authority without opposition. He made great ostentation of clemency, said that he entered Italy, not to injure, but to restore the liberties of Rome and the citizens, and gradually dissipated the fears which had been generally entertained of another proscription. After staying a few days in the city, he proceeded with his army to Spain, defeated Pompey's lieutenants, made himself master of the whole country, and returned victorious to Rome, where the citizens created him dictator and consul. 10. The monarchs of the East had declared in favor of Pompey, and had sent him large supplies; and he had at this time collected a numerous army. His cause was considered that of the commonwealth; and he was daily joined by crowds of the most distinguished nobles and citizens from Rome. He had, at one time, in his camp, upwards of 200 senators, among whom were Cicero and Cato, whose approbation alone was equivalent to a host. 11. Cæsar staid only 11 days at Rome: being anxious to bring his antagonist to a decisive engagement, he pursued him with his army, and near Dyrrach'ium, an engagement took place, which terminated in favor of Pompey, who afterwards led his troops into the plains of Pharsalia. Cæsar did every thing to provoke a general battle; and when he saw his enemy advancing, he exclaimed, "The time we have so long wished for is come; let us see how we are to acquit ourselves." The contest was now calculated to excite the deepest interest; the two armies were composed of the best soldiers in the world, and were commanded by the two greatest generals of the age; and the prize contended for was nothing less than the Roman empire. 12. Pompey's army consisted of upwards of 50,000 men ; Cæsar's, of less than half that number; yet the troops of the latter were far the best disciplined. On the side of Pompey, there was the most confident expectation of success; the minds of all being less occupied about the means of conquering, than about distributing the fruits of victory. The engagement, which lasted from early in the morning till noon, terminated in a decisive victory in favor of Cæsar, who lost only 200 men, while the loss of Pompey amounted to 15,000 killed, and 24,000 prisoners. 13. Cæsar, on this occasion, manifested his characteristic clemency, and the honors which he had acquired as victor were soon rendered more glorious by his humanity and moderation. He set at liberty the senators and Roman knights, and incorporated with the rest of his army the most of the prisoners. The baggage of Pompey was brought to him, containing numerous letters of his enemies; these he threw into the fire without opening them. When viewing the field strown with his fallen countrymen, he seemed affected at the melancholy sight, and exclaimed, as if by way of justification; "They would have it so !" 14. The fate of Pompey was wretched in the extreme. Accustomed to victory for 30 years, and master of the republic, he was in one day deprived of his power, and became a miserable fugitive. Taking with him his wife Cornelia, he fled with very few attendants to Egypt, to seek protection of Ptolemy, whose father he had befriended. But he was basely murdered in the presence of his wife, and his body thrown upon the sand. His freed man burnt his corpse, and buried the ashes, over which the following inscription was afterwards placed :-"He, whose merits deserve a temple, can now scarcely find a grave." In the mean time, Cæsar had instantly followed Pompey into Egypt, and the head of his rival, which had been preserved, was presented to him; but he turned his face from it with horror, shedding tears on remembering their former friendship, and he ordered a splendid monument to be erected to his memory. 15. The throne of Egypt was now possessed by Ptolemy and his sister, the celebrated Cleopatra. The latter aspired to undivided authority, and Cæsar, captivated by the charms of the beautiful queen, decided the contest in her favor. A war ensued, in which Ptolemy was killed, and Egypt subdued by the Roman arms. Cæsar for a while abandoned himself to pleasure, in the company of Cleopatra, but was at length called away to suppress a revolt of Pharna'ces, the son of Mithrida'tes, who had seized upon Colchis and Armenia. Cæsar subdued him with great ease, in a battle at Zela; and in his letter to Rome, he expressed the rapidity of his conquest in three words; Veni, vidi, vici; "I came, I saw I conquered." 16. Cæsar now hastened to Rome, which he found in a state of great disorder, by reason of the bad government of Mark An'tony; but he soon restored tranquillity. Pompey's party had rallied their forces in Africa, under the cominand of Cato and Scipio, assisted by Juba, king of Maurita'nia. Cæsar pursued them thither, and gained a complete victory in the battle of Thapsus. Cato, who was a rigid Stoic and stern republican, shut himself up in Utica, where he meditated a brave resistance; but perceiving all was lost, he killed himself in despair. 17. The war in Africa being thus ended, Cæsar returned again to Rome, and celebrated a most magnificent triumph, which lasted four days: the first was for Gaul; the second for Egypt; the third for his victories in Asia; and the fourth for his victory over Juba. He distributed liberally rewards to his veteran soldiers and officers, and to the citizens; he treated the people with combats of elephants, and engagements between parties of cavalry and infantry; and he entertained them at a public feast, at which 20,000 couches were placed for the guests. The multitude, intoxicated by these allurements of pleasure, cheerfully yielded up their libcrties to their great enslaver. The senate and people vied with each other in acts of servility and adulation. He was hailed father of his country, was created perpetual dictator, received the title of imperator or emperor, and his person was declared sacred. 18. After having settled the affairs at Rome, he found himself obliged to go again into Spain, where Labie'nus and the two sons of Pompey had raised an army against him; but he completely defeated them in the obstinate and bloody battle of Mun'da, which decided the fate of the adherents of his rival. 19. Having now acquired, by the force of his arms, the whole Roman empire, and subdued all who opposed his usurpation, Cæsar returned to Rome the master of the world. But no usurper ever used his power with greater wisdom and moderation. "I will not," he said, in one of his speeches, “renew the massacres of Sylla and Marius, the very remembrance of which is shocking to me. Now that my enemies are subdued, I will lay aside the sword, and endeavor, solely by my good offices, to gain over those who continue to hate me." He pardoned all who had carried arms against him, made no distinction with regard to parties, devoted himself to the prosperity and happiness of the people, corrected abuses, extended his care to the most distant provinces, reformed the calendar, undertook to drain the Pontine marshes, to improve the navigation of the Tiber, and to embellish the city; and he conceived many noble projects which he was not destined to realize. 20. Though Cæsar had repeatedly refused the crown when offered, by Mark Antony, to his acceptance, yet a rumor was widely circulated that he aspired to the name of an office of which he enjoyed all the splendid realities; and the fresh honors which the senate continued to heap upon him, were calculated to excite the envy and jealousy of a body of men who conspired against his life: nor could he, by his clemency and munificence, obliterate from the minds of the people the remembrance of their former constitution, or of the manner in which he had obtained his power. The conspiracy which was now formed against him, embraced no less than 60 senators; and at the head of it were Brutas and Cassius, men whose lives had been spared by the conqueror after the battle of Pharsalia. The former, who was beloved by Cæsar, and had received from him numerous favors, was actuated by hatred, not of the tyrant, but of tyranny, and sought the equivocal reputation of sacrificing all the ties of friendship and gratitude to the love of liberty and of his country. The latter thirsted for revenge against an envied and hated superior. 21. The rumor that the crown was to be conferred upon the dictator on the ides [15th] of March, induced the conspirators to fix upon that day for the execution of their designs; and no sooner had Cæsar taken his seat in the senate-house, than he was assailed by their aggers. He defended himself for a while with vigor, till, .. a sudden, seeing Brutus among the assailants, and being astonished at the desertion of his friend, he uttered the celebrated exclamation, Et tu Brute, "And you too, Brutus," when, muffling up his face with his mantle, he resigned himself to his fate, and fell pierced with 23 wounds. Thus perished Julius Cæsar, in the 56th year of his age, 14 years after he commenced his career of conquest in Gaul, and after having been only about 5 months in the undisputed possession of that power, which it had been the cbject of his life to obtain. 22. Cæsar was one of the most extraordinary men that have appeared in history, uniting the three-fold character of the historian, the warrior, and the statesman. Although as the subverter of the liberties of his country, he deserves only to be detested; yet he is not without claims to admiration; for, together with big unbounded ambition, he possessed the most splen |