Julius Caesar | Page 8

sending commissioners to examine into the condition of
Gaul; and some members even proposed that he should be delivered up
to the enemy. But so great had been the success of his enterprises, that
he had the honour of obtaining more days [50] (17) of supplication, and
those more frequently, than had ever before been decreed to any
commander.
XXV. During nine years in which he held the government of the
province, his achievements were as follows: he reduced all Gaul,
bounded by the Pyrenean forest, the Alps, mount Gebenna, and the two
rivers, the Rhine and the Rhone, and being about three thousand two
hundred miles in compass, into the form of a province, excepting only
the nations in alliance with the republic, and such as had merited his
favour; imposing upon this new acquisition an annual tribute of forty
millions of sesterces. He was the first of the Romans who, crossing the
Rhine by a bridge, attacked the Germanic tribes inhabiting the country

beyond that river, whom he defeated in several engagements. He also
invaded the Britons, a people formerly unknown, and having
vanquished them, exacted from them contributions and hostages.
Amidst such a series of successes, he experienced thrice only any
signal disaster; once in Britain, when his fleet was nearly wrecked in a
storm; in Gaul, at Gergovia, where one of his legions was put to the
rout; and in the territory of the Germans, his lieutenants Titurius and
Aurunculeius were cut off by an ambuscade.
XXVI. During this period [51] he lost his mother [52], whose death
was followed by that of his daughter [53], and, not long afterwards, of
his granddaughter. Meanwhile, the republic being in consternation at
the murder of Publius Clodius, and the senate passing a vote that only
one consul, namely, Cneius Pompeius, should be chosen for the
ensuing year, he prevailed with the tribunes of the people, who
intended joining him in nomination with Pompey, to propose to the
people a bill, enabling him, though absent, to become a candidate for
his second consulship, when the term of his command should be near
expiring, that he might not be obliged on that account to quit his
province too soon, and before the conclusion of the war. Having
attained this object, carrying his views still higher, and animated with
the hopes of success, he omitted no (18) opportunity of gaining
universal favour, by acts of liberality and kindness to individuals, both
in public and private. With money raised from the spoils of the war, he
began to construct a new forum, the ground-plot of which cost him
above a hundred millions of sesterces [54]. He promised the people a
public entertainment of gladiators, and a feast in memory of his
daughter, such as no one before him had ever given. The more to raise
their expectations on this occasion, although he had agreed with
victuallers of all denominations for his feast, he made yet farther
preparations in private houses. He issued an order, that the most
celebrated gladiators, if at any time during the combat they incurred the
displeasure of the public, should be immediately carried off by force,
and reserved for some future occasion. Young gladiators he trained up,
not in the school, and by the masters, of defence, but in the houses of
Roman knights, and even senators, skilled in the use of arms, earnestly
requesting them, as appears from his letters, to undertake the discipline

of those novitiates, and to give them the word during their exercises.
He doubled the pay of the legions in perpetuity; allowing them likewise
corn, when it was in plenty, without any restriction; and sometimes
distributing to every soldier in his army a slave, and a portion of land.
XXVII. To maintain his alliance and good understanding with Pompey,
he offered him in marriage his sister's grand-daughter Octavia, who had
been married to Caius Marcellus; and requested for himself his
daughter, lately contracted to Faustus Sylla. Every person about him,
and a great part likewise of the senate, he secured by loans of money at
low interest, or none at all; and to all others who came to wait upon him,
either by invitation or of their own accord, he made liberal presents; not
neglecting even the freed-men and slaves, who were favourites with
their masters and patrons. He offered also singular and ready aid to all
who were under prosecution, or in debt, and to prodigal youths;
excluding from (19) his bounty those only who were so deeply plunged
in guilt, poverty, or luxury, that it was impossible effectually to relieve
them. These, he openly declared, could derive no benefit from any
other means than a civil war.
XXVIII. He endeavoured with equal assiduity to engage in his interest
princes and provinces in every