History of Julius Caesar | Page 6

returning again to till their fields after the
desolating march of the army had passed away, and repairing the
injuries of violence, and the losses sustained by plunder, without
useless repining. They looked upon an armed government as a
necessary and inevitable affliction of humanity, and submitted to its
destructive violence as they would submit to an earthquake or a
pestilence. The tillers of the soil manage better in this country at the
present day. They have the power in their own hands, and they watch
very narrowly to prevent the organization of such hordes of armed
desperadoes as have held the peaceful inhabitants of Europe in terror
from the earliest periods down to the present day.
[Sidenote: Julius Caesar.] [Sidenote: Sylla's animosity against him.]
[Sidenote: Caesar refuses to repudiate his wife.] [Sidenote: His flight.]
When Sylla returned to Rome, and took possession of the supreme
power there, in looking over the lists of public men, there was one
whom he did not know, at first what to do with. It was the young Julius
Caesar, the subject of this history. Caesar was, by birth, patrician,
having descended from a long line of noble ancestors. There had been,
before his day, a great many Caesars who had held the highest offices
of the state, and many of them had been celebrated in history. He
naturally, therefore, belonged to Sylla's side, as Sylla was the
representative of the patrician interest. But then Caesar had personally
been inclined toward the party of Marius. The elder Marius had married
his aunt, and, besides, Caesar himself had married the daughter of

Cinna, who had been the most efficient and powerful of Marius's
coadjutors and friends. Caesar was at this time a very young man, and
he was of an ardent and reckless character, though he had, thus far,
taken no active part in public affairs. Sylla overlooked him for a time,
but at length was about to put his name on the list of the proscribed.
Some of the nobles, who were friends both of Sylla and of Caesar too,
interceded for the young man; Sylla yielded to their request, or, rather,
suspended his decision, and sent orders to Caesar to repudiate his wife,
the daughter of Cinna. Her name was Cornelia. Caesar absolutely
refused to repudiate his wife. He was influenced in this decision partly
by affection for Cornelia, and partly by a sort of stern and indomitable
insubmissiveness, which formed, from his earliest years, a prominent
trait in his character, and which led him, during all his life, to brave
every possible danger rather than allow himself to be controlled. Caesar
knew very well that, when this his refusal should be reported to Sylla,
the next order would be for his destruction. He accordingly fled. Sylla
deprived him of his titles and offices, confiscated his wife's fortune and
his own patrimonial estate, and put his name upon the list of the public
enemies. Thus Caesar became a fugitive and an exile. The adventures
which befell him in his wanderings will be described in the following
chapter.
[Sidenote: Sylla made dictator.] [Sidenote: He resigns his power.]
Sylla was now in the possession of absolute power. He was master of
Rome, and of all the countries over which Rome held sway. Still he
was nominally not a magistrate, but only a general returning
victoriously from his Asiatic campaign, and putting to death, somewhat
irregularly, it is true, by a sort of martial law persons whom he found,
as he said, disturbing the public peace. After having thus effectually
disposed of the power of his enemies, he laid aside, ostensibly, the
government of the sword, and submitted himself and his future
measures to the control of law. He placed himself ostensibly at the
disposition of the city. They chose him dictator, which was investing
him with absolute and unlimited power. He remained on this, the
highest pinnacle of worldly ambition, a short time, and then resigned
his power, and devoted the remainder of his days to literary pursuits

and pleasures. Monster as he was in the cruelties which he inflicted
upon his political foes, he was intellectually of a refined and cultivated
mind, and felt an ardent interest in the promotion of literature and the
arts.
[Sidenote: Opinion of mankind in regard to Marius and Sylla.]
The quarrel between Marius and Sylla, in respect to every thing which
can make such a contest great, stands in the estimation of mankind as
the greatest personal quarrel which the history of the world has ever
recorded. Its origin was in the simple personal rivalry of two ambitious
men. It involved, in its consequences, the peace and happiness of the
world. In their reckless struggles, the fierce combatants trampled on
every thing that came in their way, and destroyed mercilessly,