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LECTURE XCIV.

Among the features which are particularly characteristic in
Caesar, I must mention his great openness, lively disposition,
and love of friendship. He was cordial, but not tender, like
Cicero: he also differed from him in his natural desire to have
many friends. Great qualities and talents alone were sufficient
to attract him, and this circumstance led him to form friend-
ships with persons whose characters were diametrically opposed
to his, and who injured his reputation. He was perfectly free
from the jealousy and envy of Pompey, but he could not
tolerate an assumed superiority which was not based upon real
merit. Bad as Lucan’s poems are, the words in which he
describes this feature in Caesar’s character are truly great.¹
Pompey could not bear to see Caesar standing beside him, and
Caesar could not endure the pretension of Pompey to stand
above him, for he knew how infinitely inferior he was. His
talents were of the most varied kind : he possessed an unparal-
leled facility and energy in the exercise of all his faculties;
his extraordinary memory is well known. He had great pre-
sence of mind, and faith in himself and his fortune ; this gave
him an undoubting confidence that he would succeed in every
thing. Hence most of the things he did bear no impress of
labour or study. His eloquence, for instance, and his whole
style are not those of any school ; every thing was with him the
mere exercise and development of his innate powers. He was,
moreover, a man of uncommon acuteness and observation, and
of great scientific acquirements ; all his knowledge was obtained
at a time when it had a real interest for him, and engaged all
the great powers of his mind. As a prose writer, Caesar
stands forth as the greatest master in Roman literature in the
γevo? dφeλ⅛; and what Cicero says of him in his Brutus² is
true and altogether excellent. His style (sermoni propior) is
that of the conversation of a highly educated and accomplish-
ed man, who speaks with incomparable gracefulness and sim-
plicity. His speeches must have been of the most perfect kind.
Posterity has been more just towards his talents than his

¹ Pharsal. i. 125: nec quemquam jam ferre potest Caesurve priorem, Pom-
υeiusve parem.                                 ² c. 71, foil.

contemporaries: Tacitus had a thorough appreciation of him.³
It is no slight honour to grammar that Caesar took a great interest
in it. If we had his work on “ Analogy,” we should probably
find that it surpassed the productions of the grammarians, as
much as his history surpasses all similar works recording the
exploits of their authors. I have already remarked that his
military genius burst forth at once, and without previous
training. Caesar was one of those healthy and strong cha-
racters who have a clear perception of their objects in life, and
devise for themselves the means of obtaining them. Far from
being an intriguer, like most men of his time, he was the most
open-hearted being in existence. In his connexions with others
he knew nothing of intrigues; and this led him to overlook
many things which he would not otherwise have failed to
observe. Many of his acts of violence were only the conse-
quences of previous carelessness, openness, and confidence in
others. His humanity, mildness, and kindness of heart were
manifested after his victory in a manner which no one had
anticipated ; and these qualities were realities with him : they
were not artificially assumed, as they were by Augustus, who
was a mere actor throughout his life. Had Cacsar been born
on the throne, or had he lived at a time when the republic
was not yet in so complete a state of dissolution, and could
have been carried on—for instance, in the time of Scipio—he
would have attained the object of his life with the greatest
éclat. Had he lived in a republican age, he would never have
thought of setting himself above the law; but he belonged to
a period when, as the poet says, he had no choice between
being either the anvil or the hammer; and he had of course
no difficulty in making his choice. It was not Caesar’s nature,
as it was Cicero’s, to go with the wind; he felt that he must
master events, and could not avoid placing himself where he
stood: the tide of events carried him thither irresistibly. Cato
might still dream of the possibility of reviving the republic by
means of the faeæ pleins, and of carrying it on as in the days
of Curius and Fabricius: but the time for that was gone by.

With regard to Caesar’s military career, it cannot be denied
that he acted Unconscientiously. His Gallic wars are, for the
most part truly criminal: his conduct towards the Usipetes
and Tenchteri was horrible; and that towards Vercingetorix

³ See his Annales, xiii. 3, Germania, 28.

VOL. Ш.               D

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