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The Historians' History of the World 05 [The Roman Republic]
- Автор: Gutenberg
- Год: 1905
- Язык: английский
- Жанр: История
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[52-50 B.C.]
In the next campaign (51) Cæsar and his legates subdued such states as still maintained their independence. As the people of Uxellodunum (in Querci) made an obstinate defence, Cæsar (his lenity being, as we are assured, so well known that none could charge him with cruelty), in order to deter the rest of the Gauls from insurrection and resistance, cut off the hands of all the men and then let them go that all might see them. The following year (50), as all Gaul was reduced to peace, he regulated its affairs, laying on an annual tribute; and having thus established his dominion over it, he prepared to impose his yoke on his own country.
The military talent displayed by Cæsar in the conquest of Gaul is not to be disputed, and it alone would suffice to place him in the first rank of generals. We are told that he took or received the submission of eight hundred towns, subdued three hundred nations; defeated in battle three millions of men, of whom one million was slain, and another taken and sold for slaves.c
FOOTNOTES
[105] Cicero (ad Att. ii. 16) highly disapproved of this measure. He however expected that as the land would yield but 6000 lots, the people would be discontented.
[106] Because thunder, etc., would cause the assembly to be put off, and by this means bad measures, and good ones, too, had often been stopped.
[107] [In the year 56, Mithridates of Parthia, the successor of Phraates, declared war against King Artavasdes of Armenia, the son of Tigranes and the client of Rome. Thereupon Gabinius, the able and spirited governor of Syria, led the legions across the Euphrates. Meanwhile Mithridates had been overthrown in Parthia and his brother Orodes placed on the throne. Mithridates now made common cause with Rome and sought the camp of Gabinius. The latter was now ordered to restore the king of Egypt, but before leaving for Alexandria, he induced Mithridates to commence the war.]
[108] The Parthian capital was Ctesiphon, of which Seleucia, built on the opposite side of the Tigris, was a suburb.
[109] [The Surenas was the person next in rank to the king among the Parthians and the Persians.]
[110] One of the tribunes of this year was Sallust the historian. As Milo had some time before caught him in adultery with his wife Fausta, and had cudgelled him and made him pay a sum of money, he now took his revenge.
[111] Pompey was now married to Scipio’s daughter Cornelia, the widow of the younger Crassus, a young lady of the highest mental endowments and of great beauty and virtue.
[112] [As Floruse says: “When Asia was subdued by the efforts of Pompey, Fortune conferred what remained to be done in Europe upon Cæsar.”]
[113] [And how great was the haughtiness of Ariovistus! When our ambassadors said to him, “Come to Cæsar,” “And who is Cæsar?” he retorted; “let him come to me, if he will. What is it to him what our Germany does? Do I meddle with the Romans?” In consequence of this reply, so great was the dread of the unknown people in the Roman camp, that wills were publicly made even in the principia. But the greater the vast bodies of the enemy were, the more were they exposed to swords and other weapons. The ardour of the Roman soldiers in the battle cannot be better shown than by the circumstance that when the barbarians, having raised their shields above their heads, protected themselves with a testudo, the Romans leaped upon their very bucklers, and then came down upon their throats with their swords.e]
[114] [Floruse calls him “that prince so formidable for his stature, martial skill, and courage; his very name, Vercingetorix, being apparently intended to excite terror.”]
CHAPTER XXIII. CÆSAR AT WAR WITH POMPEY
[133-60 B.C.]
At this point the Roman historian Florus casts a backward look over the history of his people. Giving the point of view of the first century of the empire, it shows no little acumen and is well worth quoting.
“This,” he says, “is the third age of the Roman people, with reference to its transactions beyond the sea; an age in which, when they had once ventured beyond Italy, they carried their arms through the whole world. Of which age, the first hundred years were pure and pious, and, as I have called them, ‘golden’; free from vice and immorality, as there yet remained the sincere and harmless integrity of the pastoral life, and the imminent dread of a Carthaginian enemy supported the ancient discipline.[115]
“The succeeding hundred, reckoned from the fall of Carthage, Corinth, and Numantia, and from the inheritance bequeathed us by King Attalus in Asia, to the times of Cæsar and Pompey, and those of Augustus who succeeded them, and of whom we shall speak hereafter, were as lamentable and disgraceful for the domestic calamities, as they were honourable for the lustre of the warlike exploits that distinguished them. For, as it was glorious and praiseworthy to have acquired the rich and powerful provinces of Gaul, Thrace, Cilicia, and Cappadocia, as well as those of the Armenians and Britons, so it was disgraceful and lamentable at the same time, to have fought at home with our own citizens, with our allies, our slaves, and gladiators.
“I know not whether it would have been better for the Romans to have been content with Sicily and Africa, or even to have been without them, while still enjoying the dominion of Italy, than to grow to such greatness as to be ruined by their own strength. For what else produced those intestine distractions but excessive good fortune? It was the conquest of Syria that first corrupted us, and the succession afterwards in Asia, to the estate of the king of Pergamus. Such wealth and riches ruined the manners of the age, and overwhelmed the republic, which was sunk in its own vices as in a common sewer. For how did it happen that the Roman people demanded from the tribunes lands and subsistence, unless through the scarcity which they had by their luxury produced? Hence there arose the first and second sedition of the Gracchi, and a third, that of Apuleius Saturninus. From what cause did the equestrian order, being divided from the senate, domineer by virtue of the judiciary laws, if it was not from avarice, in order that the revenues of the state and trials of causes might be made a means of gain? Hence again it was that the privilege of citizenship was promised to the Latins, and hence were the arms of our allies raised against us. And what shall we say as to the wars with the slaves? How did they come upon us, but from the excessive number of slaves? Whence arose such armies of gladiators against their masters, if it was not that a profuse liberality, by granting shows to gain the favour of the populace, made that an art which was once but a punishment of enemies? And to touch upon more specious vices, did not the ambition for honours take its rise from the same excess of riches? Hence also proceeded the outrages of Marius, hence those of Sulla. The extravagant sumptuousness of banquets, too, and profuse largesses, were not they the effects of wealth, which must in time lead to want? This also stirred up Catiline against his country. Finally, whence did that insatiable desire of power and rule proceed, but from a superabundance of riches? This it was that armed Cæsar and Pompey with fatal weapons for the destruction of the state.”