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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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Pompey’s party was in fact in a great strait; and Cæsar (probably at a high price) had attained what he wished. He had forced his adversaries to enter the list as insurrectionists. Pompey began raising troops without the necessary authority, whilst Cæsar, who was with a legion at Ravenna, sent the order to his assembled troops to disband without delay. He also despatched a letter to the senate, in which he offered to resign the governorship of Cisalpine Gaul, to reduce his ten legions to two, if he were allowed to retain these and the governorship of Cisalpine Gaul until the election of the consul for 48. This document was delivered to the senate by Curio. The tribunes Mark Antony and C. Cassius insisted on its being read aloud. The sitting was stormy, and the two consuls C. Claudius Marcellus, and L. Cornelius Lentulus made a point of Cæsar’s appearing as a private individual before the judicature.
In accordance with their views, the motion was carried for Cæsar to resign his province and to disband his army within a fixed time; his neglect to concur with this decree was to be considered high treason. In that case L. Domitius was nominated as his successor. This motion was passed on the 1st of January, 49, but the tribunes put their veto on it, and a great excitement prevailed in the city, into which Pompey had brought two legions. With this support the terrified senate, after expelling the dissentient tribunes from the curia, issued the decree which involved the declaration of war. The senate solemnly conjured the leaders, the officials supported by a military force in the city and its neighbourhood, to watch over the safety of the endangered state. The tribunes renewed their veto, but threatened by the soldiers of Pompey, against whom they were powerless, they fled from Rome and repaired to Cæsar’s headquarters. The decisive step was taken, the swords were unsheathed. Cæsar still remained with his single legion at Ravenna when the tribunes arrived in the character of fugitives. He had already carefully weighed the matter, and had conceived a clear decided course. He had his own army which had served him for ten years in danger and in victory. He knew every cohort, almost every soldier in his command; and every single man was devoted to the general who shared danger and honour with them all, and who had never deserted them in any strait. Moreover he had the Transpadian, or Romanised Gauls of the Po district, to whom he had granted full civic rights on his own authority; this however was the end of his resources.
CÆSAR CROSSES THE RUBICON
[49 B.C.]
On the other side all the other forces of Rome, the legions in Spain, the state treasure, the fleet, the tribute of the dominions, the contingents and the money of the whole of the East, and the respected name of the republic were at the disposal of Pompey, who boasted, and not without cause, that he had only to stamp upon the ground for armies to appear. Perhaps the charm of the old fame of Pompey exceeded the attraction of the more recent victories of Cæsar. But Cæsar did not hesitate. On the other side of the little river Rubicon which separated the Cisalpine province from Italy, lay his native land, and the civil war which could only end with his overthrow or his complete victory.b
Cæsar crossing the Rubicon
“Cæsar had sent people to bring his army,” says Appian, “but being accustomed to succeed more by diligence, striking a terror and hardiness, than any mighty preparations, he resolved to begin this great war with his five thousand men, and to seize some places of Italy that were commodious for him. First he sent before to Ariminum some centurions and men who were to enter the city as passengers, and then all of a sudden to seize on that city (the first that offers itself coming from Gaul); and himself, in the evening, going out as if he had found himself ill after a feast, leaves his friends, and mounting in a chariot drove himself the same way, followed at a distance by his cavalry. When he came to the banks of Rubicon he stopped some time, looking upon the water, and thinking of the calamities he was about to be the cause of, if he passed that river in arms.
“At length turning to those of his train, ‘My friends,’ said he, ‘if I pass not this river immediately, it will be to me the beginning of all misfortunes; and if I do pass it, I go to make a world of people miserable’; and there withal, as if he had been pressed forward by some divinity, he drove into the stream, and crossing it, cries with a loud voice, ‘The lot is cast.’ From whence, continuing on his way with speed, he seized Ariminum by break of day, and all in an instant places garrisons in all the good places of that country, which he reduced either by force or favour.
“Meanwhile, as it happens in these unexpected alarms, the whole country was filled with people flying, the countrymen forsaking their habitations, and nothing was to be heard but cries, and lamentations, and groans, yet no man knew from whence this disorder came, but all imagined that Cæsar was upon them with all his forces. The consuls receiving the news, gave not Pompey, who perfectly understood war, leisure to prepare himself, and take his own time; they began to press him to be gone out of the city, and make levies of forces in Italy, as if Rome had been in immediate danger of being taken and plundered. And the senate surprised with so unlooked for an irruption, were terrified, and began to repent they had not accepted those reasonable conditions offered by Cæsar; but this was not till fear had opened their eyes, and led them back from partiality to reason; for now men talked of a great many prodigies and extraordinary signs which had appeared in the heavens, that it had rained blood in many places, that in others the statues of the gods had sweat, that many temples had been struck with thunderbolts, that a mule had engendered, besides an infinite of other things which seemed to foretell the change of the present state, and the ruin of the commonwealth, so as it should never be re-established; wherefore they made vows and prayers as in a public consternation. And the people, remembering again the miseries they had suffered because of the dissensions of Sulla and Marius, cried out that they ought to take away the command as well from Cæsar as from Pompey, since that was the only means to prevent a war. Cicero himself was of opinion that deputies should be sent to Cæsar to treat an accommodation, but the consuls absolutely opposed it.
“Favonius, quipping at Pompey because of a word he had once said with too much arrogance, bade him stamp on the ground with his foot, and see if any armed men would rise. To which Pompey answered: ‘You will want none so you will follow me, and are not troubled to leave the city, and Italy, itself, if there be occasion; for people of courage,’ said he, ‘do not make liberty consist in the possession of lands and houses; they cannot want in any place they come to; and if they lose not their courage, will soon recover their houses and lands.’
“After having said these words, and protested he would hold him for an enemy, who out of fear to lose what he possessed, deserted the commonwealth in extreme danger, he went out of the palace, and soon after out of the city, to join the army that was at Capua. The consuls followed him presently, but the other senators weighed it a little longer, and spent all the night in the palace, without resolving anything; and at length as soon as it was break of day, the greater part followed the same way after Pompey. Meantime, Cæsar having reached at Corfinium, L. Domitius, whom they had sent for his successor with four thousand men (of which he had already lost a part), he besieged him in the city, from whence, endeavouring to escape, the inhabitants stopped him at the gate, and brought him to Cæsar, to whom the remainder of his forces yielded themselves; he received them kindly, that he might draw others by their example, and without doing any wrong to Domitius, he suffered him to go whither he pleased, with all his equipage, hoping by this courtesy to oblige him to take his party, yet without hindering him from going to find out Pompey. Pompey on the other side marched from Capua to Brundusium, that he might thence pass to Epirus, where he designed to establish the seat of war; he sent to all provinces and to kings themselves that they should send him what forces they could supply.”c