It gave them advantage against him, and would be their justification for any attempt they should make upon him for since the civil wars were ended, he had nothing else that he could be charged with. His enemies, too, are thought to have had some share in this, as well as his flatterers. But others, striving which should deserve most, carried them so excessively high, that they made Caesar odious to the most indifferent and moderate sort of men, by the pretentions and extravagance of the titles which they decreed him. Cicero made the first proposals to the senate for conferring honours upon him, which might in some sort be said not to exceed the limits of ordinary human moderation. This was indeed a tyranny avowed, since his power now was not only absolute, but perpetual too.
Nevertheless his countrymen, conceding all to his fortune, and accepting the bit, in the hope that the government of a single person would give them time to breathe after so many civil wars and calamities, made him dictator for life. Besides that, hitherto he had never sent letters or messengers to announce any victory over his fellow-citizens, but had seemed rather to be ashamed of the action than to expect honour from it. The triumph which he celebrated for this victory displeased the Romans beyond anything, for he had not defeated foreign generals or barbarian kings, but had destroyed the children and family of one of the greatest men of Rome, though unfortunate and it did not look well to lead a procession in celebration of the calamities of his country, and to rejoice in those things for which no other apology could be made either to gods or men than their being absolutely necessary. The younger of Pompey's sons escaped but Didius, some days after the fight, brought the head of the elder to Caesar. This battle was won on the feast of Bacchus, the very day in which Pompey, four years before, had set out for the war. When he came back from the fight, he told his friends that he had often fought for victory, but this was the first time he had ever fought for life. The great battle was near the town of Munda, in which Caesar, seeing his men hard pressed, and making but a weak resistance, ran through the ranks among the soldiers, and crying out, asked them whether they were not ashamed to deliver him into the hands of boys? At last, with great difficulty, and the best efforts he could make, he forced back the enemy, killing thirty thousand of them, though with the loss of one thousand of his best men. They were but young, yet had gathered together a very numerous army, and showed they had courage and conduct to command it, so that Caesar was in extreme danger.
He was now chosen a fourth time consul, and went into Spain against Pompey's sons. So great a waste had the civil war made in Rome alone, not to mention what the other parts of Italy and the provinces suffered. When these shows were over, an account was taken of the people who, from three hundred and twenty thousand, were now reduced to one hundred and fifty thousand. He entertained the whole people together at one feast, where twenty-two thousand dining couches were laid out and he made a display of gladiators, and of battles by sea, in honour, as he said, of his daughter Julia, though she had been long since dead. After the triumphs, he distributed rewards to his soldiers, and treated the people with feasting and shows. He then led three triumphs for Egypt, Pontus, and Africa, the last for the victory over, not Scipio, but King Juba, as it was professed, whose little son was then carried in the triumph, the happiest captive that ever was, who, of a barbarian Numidian, came by this means to obtain a place among the most learned historians of Greece. Excerpts from the Original Electronic Text at the web site of the Internet Classics ArchivesĬaesar, upon his return to Rome, did not omit to pronounce before the people a magnificent account of his victory, telling them that he had subdued a country which would supply the public every year with two hundred thousand attic bushels of corn and three million pounds' weight of oil.
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