The Historians' History of the World 05

Such was the sad end of a man whom the freaks of fortune and the great confusion of the Roman state raised to a height beyond his natural power. He, like Marius, was above all, a great soldier, clever enough to accomplish deeds when favoured by fortune but not independent enough to attain them against odds. He was unequalled in warlike courage, military skill, and personal bravery, and his moderate life in spite of his great wealth put the aristocrats of his time to shame. But he was utterly wanting in the higher qualities which secure lasting success, overthrow effete state organisations and construct new ones in their places. He was hard, selfish, and cruel. “As oppressor,” as a Roman subsequently said of him, “not better than Marius or Sulla.” Neither did he retain his position as a great general when the time came to prove his real worth, and his utter want of independence and capacity as a statesman was the rock upon which his life was wrecked; whilst Cæsar’s success was due to his capacity as a general as well as a statesman, and the power of bringing both these qualities to bear upon his course.b

FOOTNOTES

[115] [The purity of this primitive age has been universally exaggerated. Early Roman virtue was based on poverty and ignorance.]

[116] [Of him Velleius Paterculuse says, “For producing the civil war and all the calamities that ensued from it for twenty successive years, there was no one that supplied more flame and excitement than Caius Curio. He was of noble birth, eloquent, intrepid, prodigal alike of his own reputation and fortune and those of others; a man ably wicked and eloquent to the injury of the public, and whose passions and designs no degree of wealth or gratification could satisfy.”]

[117] [Says Florus:d

“Dishonourable to relate! he that was recently as the head of the senate, the arbiter of peace and war, fled across the sea over which he had once triumphed, in a single vessel that was shattered and almost dismantled.”]

[118] [“Thus the fates hurrying him on, Thessaly was chosen as the theatre for battle, and the destiny of the city, the empire, and the whole of mankind, was committed to the plains of Philippi. Never did fortune behold so many of the forces, or so much of the dignity, of the Roman people collected in one place. More than three hundred thousand men were assembled in the two armies, besides the auxiliary troops of kings and nations. Nor were there ever more manifest signs of some approaching destruction; the escape of victims, swarms of bees settling on the standards, and darkness in the daytime; while the general himself, in a dream by night, heard a clapping of hands in his own theatre at Rome, which rung in his ears like the beating of breasts in sorrow; and he appeared in the morning (an unlucky omen!) clad in black in the centre of the army.”—Florus.d]

CHAPTER XXIV. FROM PHARSALIA TO THE DEATH OF CATO

CÆSAR IN EGYPT

The nobles betrayed their own cause at Pharsalia by their want of courage and self-devotion. It is in vain that Lucan rounds a poetical period with the names of the Lepidi, the Metelli, the Corvini, and the Torquati, whom he supposes to have fallen in the last agony of the defence; of all the great chiefs whom we know as leaders in the Pompeian camp, Domitius alone perished on that day, and even he was killed in flight.

The fragments of the mighty ruin were scattered far away from the scene of disaster. Pompey and a few adherents fled, as we have seen, in one direction to Larissa; a larger number escaped by the road to Illyricum, and met again within the walls of Dyrrhachium. The principal reserve of the Pompeian forces was there commanded by M. Cato, and there also was the common resort of the wavering and dissatisfied, such as Varro and Cicero, who wished to secure their own safety in either event. The fleets of the republic, under Octavius and C. Cassius, still swept the seas triumphantly; the latter had recently burnt thirty-five Cæsarian vessels in the harbour of Messana. But the naval commanders were well aware that their exploits could have little influence on the event of a contest which was about to be decided by the whole military force of the Roman world; and forming their own plans, and acting for the most part independently, they began more and more to waver in their fidelity to the common cause. As soon as the event of the great battle became known, the squadrons of the allies made the best of their way home, while some, such as the Rhodians, attached themselves to the conqueror.