these aspiring leaders the Republic should surrender its liberties. The term of Cæsar's government was near its expiration; but to secure himself against a deprivation of power, he procured a proposal to be made in the senate by one of his partisans, which wore the appearance of great moderation, namely, that Cæsar and Pompey should either both continue in their governments, or both be deprived of them, as they were equally capable of endangering the public liberty by an abuse of power. The motion passed, and Cæsar immediately offered to resign, on condition that his rival should do so; but Pompey rejected the accommodation: the term of his government had yet several years of duration, and he suspected the proposal to be a snare laid for him by Cæsar. He resolved to maintain his right by force of arms, and a civil war was the inevitable outcome. The consuls and a great part of the senate were the friends of Pompey. Cæsar had on his side a victorious army, consisting of ten legions, and the body of the Roman citizens, whom he had won by his liberality. Mark Antony and Cassius, at that time. tribunes of the people, left Rome, and repaired to Cæsar's camp.

The senate, apprehensive of his designs, procured a decree, branding with the crime of parricide any commander who should dare to pass the Rubicon-a small rivulet near Ariminium, and the boundary between Italy and the Gauls-even with a single cohort, without their permission. Cæsar, after meditating for some time on the irrevocable step he was disposed to take, at length infringed the prohibition, and exclaiming "Jacta est alea " (the die is cast), passed the Rubicon, and marched straight to Rome. Pompey, to whom the senate committed the defence of the State, had no army. He quitted Rome, followed by the consuls and a part of the senate; and endeavored hastily to levy troops over all Italy and Greece, while Cæsar triumphantly entered the city amidst the acclamations of the people, seized the public treasury, and possessed himself of the supreme authority without opposition.

Having secured the capital of the empire, he set out to take the field against his enemies. Pompey fled before him, and, embarking at Brundusium, abandoned Italy. The lieutenants of Pompey had possession of Spain. Cæsar apprehending that if he left them behind him, they might press into

Italy, and make it the seat of war in his absence, marched thither, and subdued the whole country in the space of forty days, contending, with wonderful success, not merely against skilful commanders, but the greatest impediments of a difficult country,-his soldiers almost destitute of provisions, continually wading through rivers up to their necks, and by sudden marches frustrating all attempts of the enemy. Cæsar returned to Rome, where in his absence he had been nominated dictator. In the succeeding election of magistrates, he was chosen consul, and thus invested, by a double title, with the right of acting in the name of the republic.

But

Pompey had by this raised a numerous army, and Cæsar was anxious to bring him to a decisive engagement by following him into the East. He was in such haste, that he embarked with only five out of twelve legions which he had ordered to assemble at Brundusium. Some of the legions, harassed by such continued and distant removals, were slow in obeying his orders, till, corrected by the shame of finding him gone without them, their sentiments changed, and, before his ships could return to fetch them, they were eager to join his standard. part of the fleet, on its way back to Italy, was taken and destroyed by one of Pompey's squadrons, and it was long before Cæsar felt himself sufficiently strong to offer battle to his rival. At last they met in Illyria, and the first conflict was of doubtful issue; but on leading his army to Macedonia, where they found a large reinforcement, and thence to Thessaly, he gave battle to Pompey in the field of Pharsalia, and entirely defeated him; 15,000 were slain, and 24,000 surrendered themselves prisoners of war,

B.C. 49.

The fate of Pompey was, indeed, a miserable one. With his wife, Cornelia, the companion of his misfortunes his first wife, Cæsar's daughter, was dead -he fled to Egypt, in a single ship, trusting to the protection of Ptolemy, whose father had owed to him his settlement on the throne. But the ministers of the young prince, dreading the power of Cæsar, basely courted his favor by the murder of his rival. Brought ashore in a small boat by the guards of the king, a Roman centurion, who had fought under his own banners, stabbed him, even in the sight of Cornelia, and cutting off his head, flung the body naked on the sands. Cæsar pursued Pompey to Alexandria, where the head of the un

happy man, presented as a grateful offering, gave him the first intelligence of his fate. He wept, and turned with horror from the sight. He caused every honor to be paid to Pompey's memory, and from that time showed the utmost beneficence to the partisans of his unfortunate rival.

The sovereignty of Egypt was in dispute between Ptolemy and his sister, the celebrated Cleopatra. Cæsar was chosen umpire between them, and the wily Cleopatra resolved upon seeing Cæsar-then in Alexandria-in person, believing fully in her own charms and her own seductions. She, therefore, caused him to be told, that those whom she employed in her behalf in their mission to him had betrayed her, and demanded his permission to appear in person.

The princess, who took nobody with her, of all her friends, but Apollodorus, the Sicilian, got into a little boat, and arrived at the bottom of the walls of the citadel of Alexandria when it was quite dark at night. Finding that there were no means of entering without being known, she thought of the following stratagem. She laid herself at full length in the midst of a bundle of clothes. Apollodorus wrapped the bundle in a cloth, tied it with a thong, and in that manner carried "the most beautiful woman in the world" through the gates of the citadel, straight to the apartment and feet of Cæsar, who was far from being displeased with this daring strategy.

The next day Cæsar brought Ptolemy and Cleopatra into an assembly of the people, and decreed that the two should reign jointly in Egypt, according to the intent of the will of the late king.

Cleopatra, though married to her brother, and joint heir of their father's will, was ambitious of undivided authority, and Cæsar, captivated by her charms, decided the contest in favor of the beauteous queen. A war ensued, in which Ptolemy was killed, and Egypt subdued by the Roman arms. In this war, the famous library of Alexandria was burnt to ashes, B.C. 48. A revolt of the Asiatic provinces, under Pharnaces, the son of Mithridates, was signally chastised, and the report carried by Cæsar to the Roman senate in the three well-known words, Veni! Vidi! Vici! "I came, I saw, I conquered." The conqueror returned to Rome, which needed his presence; for Italy was divided, and the partisans of Pompey were yet extremely formidable.

His two sons, with Cato and Scipio, were in arms in Africa, Juba, king of Mauritania, having joined them. Cæsar, though at first strangely interrupted by a meeting of his veteran troops, not excepting his favorite Tenth Legion, pursued them thither, and proceeding with caution till secure of his advantage, defeated them in a decisive engagement at Thapsus. Scipio perished in his passage to Spain, while Juba and his general, Petrecius, slew each other. Cato, shutting himself up in Utica, meditated a brave resistance; but, finally seeing no hope of success, he determined not to survive the liberties of his country, and fell deliberately by his own hand. Mauritania was now added to the number of the Roman provinces, and Cæsar returned to Rome absolute master of the Empire. His triumph lasted four days, being, in fact, so many distinct triumphs: the first for Gaul; the second for Egypt; the third for his victories in Asia; and the last for Africa. The people were entertained at upwards of twenty thousand tables; they requited his gratuities by heaping upon him all the titles and dignities of the

state.

From that moment his attention was directed solely to the prosperity and happiness of the Roman people. He remembered no longer that there had been opposite parties; beneficent alike to the friends of Pompey and his own. He labored to reform every species of abuse or grievance. He introduced order into every department of the state, defining the separate rights of all its magistrates, and extending his care to the regulation of its most distant provinces. The reformation of the calendar, the foundation of the Julian year, and bissextile computation, the draining of the marshes of Italy, the navigation of the Tiber, the embellishment of Rome, the complete survey and delineation of the Empire, alternately employed his liberal and capacious mind. He endowed the city with magnificent buildings, and caused Carthage and Corinth to be rebuilt, establishing colonies in both cities. Returning from the final overthrow of Pompey's party in Spain, he was hailed the father of his country, was created consul for ten years, and perpetual dictator. One of the months of the year was appointed to be called after his name, statues were erected to him, and money stamped with his image; public sacrifices were appointed to be offered on his birthday, and an apotheosis hinted at, even during his life.

His person was declared sacred, his title henceforth Imperator, B.C. 45.

The Roman Republic had thus finally, by its own acts, resigned its liberties. They were not extinguished by the ambition of a Pompey, or of a Cæsar. If the sentiments of Cæsar and Pompey had been the same with those of Cato, others would have had similar ambitious thoughts; and since the Commonwealth was destined to fall, there never would have been wanting a hand to drag it to destruction. Yet Cæsar had by force subdued his country; he, therefore, was an usurper; and had it been feasible to restore the liberties of the Republic, and with them its happiness, by the suppression of that usurpation, the attempt had merited the praise, at least, of good design. Perhaps so thought Cæsar's murderers; and thus, however weak the policy, however base and treacherous their act, with many they will ever find apologists. They madly dreamed an impossible outcome, as the event fully demonstrated.

A conspiracy was formed by sixty of the senators, at the head of whom were Brutus and Cassius; the former a man beloved of Cæsar, who saved his life, and heaped upon him numberless benefits.

But Brutus had imbibed the stern principles of Cato, and fancied that his name alone pointed him out as the restorer of the laws and liberty of Rome. Cassius had private piques against Cæsar. It was rumored that the dictator wished to add to his numerous titles that of king, and that the Ides of March was fixed on for investing him with the diadem. On that day, when taking his seat in the senate house, in contempt not only of certain omens, but of express warnings, he was suddenly assailed by the conspirators; he defended himself for some time against their daggers, till, seeing Brutus amongst the number, he faintly exclaimed: "Et tu, Brute!" "And you, too, oh, Brutus"; and, covering his face with his robe, fell at the base of Pompey's statue. Pierced by twenty-three wounds, he perished, B.C. 43, in the fifty-sixth year of his age.

The Roman people were struck with horror at the deed; they loved Cæsar, master as he was of their lives and liberties. Mark Antony and Lepidus, ambitious of succeeding to the powers of the dictator, resolved to pave the way by avenging his death. The people, to whom Cæsar, by his testament, had

bequeathed a great part of his fortune, were penetrated with gratitude towards his memory. A public harangue from Antony over the bleeding body, exposed in the forum, inflamed them with the utmost indignation against his murderers, who must have met with instant destruction, had they not escaped with precipitation from the city. Antony profited by these dispositions; and the avenger of Cæsar, of course the favorite of the people, was in the immediate prospect of attaining a similar height of dominion. In this, however, he found a formidable competitor in Octavius, the grand-nephew and heir of Cæsar, who, at this critical moment, arrived in Rome. Availing himself of these titles, Octavius gained the senate to his interest, and divided with Antony the favor of the people. The rivals soon perceived that it was their wisest plan to unite their interests; and they admitted Lepidus into their association, whose power as governor of Gaul, and immense wealth, gave him a title to a share of authority.

Thus was formed the second Triumvirate, the effects of whose union was beyond measure injurious to the Republic. The Triumviri divided among themselves the provinces, and cemented their union by deliberate sacrifice, made by each, of his best friends, to the vengeance of his associates. Antony consigned to death his uncle Lucius, Lepidus his brother Paulus, and Octavius his guardian Toranius, and his friend Cicero. In this hideous proscription, three hundred senators and three thousand knights were basely butchered. Cicero fell by the hand of Popilius Lænas, whom he had successfully defended in a cause which affected his life. He died with dignity, weary of the corrupt times in which he lived, his age being sixty-three years.

Antony having passed into Asia after the battle of Philippi, in an evil hour for his future cited Cleopatra before him, to answer for the conduct of her governors. The princess, assured of her charms by the results she had already so successfully achieved with Julius Cæsar, resolved to lure Antony within the meshes of her irresistible seduction. She was at that time twenty-five years of age, in the very early summer of her wondrous woman-beauty. Having crossed the sea of Pamphylia, she entered the Cydnus, and proceeding up that river landed at Tarsus, where Antony awaited her coming. Never was equipage more splendid and magnificent than

hers. The stern of her ship flamed with gold, the sails were purple, and the oars inlaid with silver. A pavilion of cloth of gold was raised upon the deck, under which appeared the queen, robed like Venus, and surrounded by the most beautiful virgins of her court, of whom some represented the Nereides, and others the Graces. Instead of trumpets were heard hautboys, flutes, harps, and other such instruments of music, discoursing the softest airs, to which the oars kept time, lending additional sweetness to the general harmony. Perfumes burned on the deck which spread their odors to a great distance, and entranced the multitudes who lined the banks of the river, to witness this novel and magnificent pageant.

Antony supped with her on her arrival, and the splendor of the entertainment, together with Cleopatra's attractions, completely fascinated him. He became from that fatal moment her most abject slave, obeying her mandates as if his very life depended upon their instant execution. Feasts were held every day, at which she served the love-sick idiot upon silver and gold. It was at one of these feasts that Cleopatra, in order to display her enormous wealth, and at the same time her contempt for it, dropped one of two pearl earrings which she wore, and valued at $250,000, into a cup of vinegar, and drank off the contents, the acid having dissolved the pearl. She was about to follow with the other, when Plancus stopped her.

Cleopatra, lest Antony should escape her, never lost sight of him, and was ever employed in retaining him in his chains. She played at dice, hunted, fished, and attended military reviews with him. Antony, in order to appear both a skilful and lucky angler, caused expert divers to fasten large live fishes to his hooks beneath the sea; then he would haul up.

Cleopatra, perceiving this, had a salted fish, which came from the kingdom of Pontus, attached to his hook. When the amorous Antony drew it in, the Queen laughed loudly and long, exclaiming, "Leave the line, good general, to us, the kings and queen of Pharos, and Canopus; your business is to fish for cities, kingdoms, and kings."

This fascinating queen, in the midst of the most violent whirl of pleasures, retained a vivid taste for polite learning and the sciences. She erected a new library in Alexandria, to replace that which was destroyed by fire, to which Antony presented 200,000

volumes, the libraries of Pergamus. She was an accomplished linguist, speaking in their own languages to the Ethiopians, Troglotydæ, Hebrews, Arabians, Syrians, Medes, and Parthians. Antony made her the most magnificent presents, including Phoenicia, the Lower Syria, the isle of Cyprus, with a great part of Cicilia, and portions of Judæa and Arabia. In his feverish impatience to rejoin her after an expedition against the Parthians, he lost 8,000 men, so hurried was his march, and so rigorous the season.

When Octavia, Antony's wife, would have joined him, Cleopatra pretended illness, declaring that Octavia's sharing his love would absolutely kill her. The deluded fool refused to see his noble and virtuous wife, and sent her back insulted, when Octavius, glad of the excuse for breaking with him, espoused

her cause.

Antony caused Cleopatra to be proclaimed Queen of Egypt, Cyprus, Libya and Coclo-Syria, in conjunction with her son by Julius Cæsar, Cæsarin. He also repudiated his wife Octavia, ordering her with all her children to quit his house.

When Octavius had an army and fleet ready he declared war. Antony repaired to Samos, where the whole fleet was assembled. It consisted of five hundred ships of war, of extraordinary size and structure.

On board this fleet were two hundred thousand foot, and twelve thousand horse. The kings of Libya, Cilicia, Cappadocia, Paphlagonia, Comagena and Thrace, were there in person; and those of Pontus, Judæa, Lycaonia, Galatia and Media, had sent their troops. A more splendid and pompous sight could not be seen than this fleet when it put to sea, and had unfurled its sails. But nothing equalled the magnificence of Cleopatra's galley, all flaming with gold; its sails of purple; its flags and streamers floating in the wind, whilst trumpets and other instruments of war made the heavens resound with airs of joy and triumph. Antony followed her close, in a galley equally splendid. Cleopatra, intoxicated with her fortune and grandeur, and hearkening only to her unbridled ambition, foolishly threatened the capitol with approaching ruin, and prepared with her infamous troop of eunuchs utterly to subvert the Roman Empire.

On the other side, less pomp and splendor was seen, but more utility. Octavius had only two hundred

and fifty ships, and fourscore thousand foot, with as many horse as Antony. But all his troops were chosen men, and on board his fleet were none but

experienced seamen. His vessels were not so large as Antony's, but then they were much lighter and fitter for service. The rendezvous of Octavius was at Brundusium, and Antony advanced to Corcyra. But the season of the year was over, and bad weather came on, so that they were both obliged to retire, and put their troops into winter-quarters, and their fleets into good ports, till the approaching spring.

Antony and Octavius, as soon as the season would admit, took the field both by sea and land. The two fleets entered the Ambrasian Gulf in Epirus. Antony's bravest and most experienced officers advised him not to hazard a battle by sea, to send back Cleopatra into Egypt, and to make all possible haste into Thrace or Macedonia, in order to fight there by land; because his army, composed of good troops, and much superior in numbers to that of Octavius, seemed to promise him the victory; whereas a fleet so ill-manned as his, how numerous soever it might be, was by no means to be relied on. But Antony had not been susceptible of good advice for a long time, and had acted only to please Cleopatra. That proud princess, who judged of things solely from appearances, believed her fleet invincible, and that the enemy's ships could not approach it without being shattered to pieces. Besides, she rightly perceived that in case of misfortune it would be easier for her to escape in her ships than by land. Her opinion, therefore, took place against the advice of the generals.

The battle was fought upon the second of September, at the mouth of the gulf of Ambracia, near the city of Actium, in sight of both the land armies; the one of which was drawn up in battle upon the north, and the other upon the south of that strait, expecting the event. The contest was doubtful for some time, and seemed as much in favor of Antony as Octavius, till the retreat of Cleopatra. That queen, frightened with the noise of the battle, in which everything was terrible to a woman, took to flight when she was in no danger, and drew after her the whole Egyptian squadron, which consisted of sixty ships of the line, with which she sailed for the coast of Peloponnesus. Antony, who saw her fly, forgetting everything, forgetting even himself, followed

For

her precipitately, and yielded a victory to Octavius, which, till then, he had exceedingly well disputed. It, however, cost the victor extremely dear. Antony's ships fought so well after his departure, that, though the battle began before noon, it was not over when night came on; so that the troops of Octavius were obliged to pass it on board their ships.

The next day, Octavius, seeing his victory complete, detached a squadron in pursuit of Antony and Cleopatra. But that squadron despairing of ever coming up with them, because so far before it, soon returned to join the main body of the fleet. Antony having entered the admiral-galley, in which. Cleopatra was, went and sat down at the head of it; where, leaning his elbows on his knees, and supporting his head with his two hands, he remained like a man overwhelmed with shame and rage; reflecting with profound melancholy upon his ill conduct, and the misfortunes it had brought upon him. He kept in that posture, and in those gloomy thoughts, during the three days they were going to Tænarus, without seeing or speaking to Cleopatra. At the end of that time they saw each other again, and lived together as usual.

The land army still remained entire, and consisted of eighteen legions and twenty-two thousand horse, under the command of Canidius, Antony's lieutenant-general.

From Tænarus, Cleopatra took the route of Alexandria, and Antony that of Libya, where he had left a considerable army to guard the frontiers of that country. Upon his landing he was informed that Scarpus, who commanded this army, had declared for Octavius. He was so struck with this news, which he had no reason to expect, that he would have killed himself, and was with difficulty prevented from it by his friends. He therefore had no other choice to make than to follow Cleopatra to Alexandria, where she was arrived. And soon after she formed another very extraordinary design. To avoid falling into the hands of Octavius, who, she foresaw, would follow her into Egypt, she designed to have her ships in the Mediterranean carried into the Red Sea, over the isthmus between them, this being now the Suez Canal, which was no more than thirty leagues broad; and afterwards to put her treasures on board those ships she already had at sea; but the Arabians who inhabited the coast hav