The Best of the Bureau/The_Best_of_the_Bureau_Bureau_Development_Inc._1992.iso/dp/0002/00021.txt

Text File | 1992-08-14 | 28KB | 439 lines

$Unique_ID{bob00021}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{Julius Caesar
Chapter VI: Crossing The Rubicon}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Abbott, Jacob}
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$Subject{caesar
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caesar's
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himself
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$Date{1900}
$Log{Hear Caesar At The Bridge*50590009.aud
See Crossing The Rubicon*0002101.scf
}
Title:       Julius Caesar
Author:      Abbott, Jacob
Date:        1900

Chapter VI: Crossing The Rubicon

     There was a little stream in ancient times, in the north of Italy, which
flowed westward into the Adriatic Sea, called the Rubicon.  This stream has
been immortalized by the transactions which we are now about to describe.

[See Crossing The Rubicon: In history the Rubicon is a grand, permanent, and
conspicuous stream.]

     The Rubicon was a very important boundary, and yet it was in itself so
small and insignificant that it is now impossible to determine which of two or
three little brooks here running into the sea is entitled to its name and
renown.  In history the Rubicon is a grand, permanent, and conspicuous stream,
gazed upon with continued interest by all mankind for nearly twenty centuries;
in nature it is an uncertain rivulet, for a long time doubtful and
undetermined, and finally lost.

     The Rubicon originally derived its importance from the fact that it was
the boundary between all that part of the north of Italy which is formed by
the valley of the Po, one of the richest and most magnificent countries of the
world, and the more southern Roman territories.  This country of the Po
constituted what was in those days called the hither Gaul, and was a Roman
province.  It belonged now to Caesar's jurisdiction, as the commander in Gaul.
All south of the Rubicon was territory reserved for the immediate jurisdiction
of the city.  The Romans, in order to protect themselves from any danger which
might threaten their own liberties from the immense armies which they raised
for the conquest of foreign nations, had imposed on every side very strict
limitations and restrictions in respect to the approach of these armies to the
Capitol.  The Rubicon was the limit on this northern side.  Generals
commanding in Gaul were never to pass it.  To cross the Rubicon with an army
on the way to Rome was rebellion and treason.  Hence the Rubicon became, as it
were, the visible sign and symbol of civil restriction to military power.

     As Caesar found the time of his service in Gaul drawing toward a
conclusion, he turned his thoughts more and more toward Rome, endeavoring to
strengthen his interest there by every means in his power, and to circumvent
and thwart the designs of Pompey.  He had agents and partisans in Rome who
acted for him and in his name.  He sent immense sums of money to these men, to
be employed in such ways as would most tend to secure the favor of the people.
He ordered the Forum to be rebuilt with great magnificence.  He arranged great
celebrations, in which the people were entertained with an endless succession
of games, spectacles, and public feasts.  When his daughter Julia, Pompey's
wife, died, he celebrated her funeral with indescribable splendor.  He
distributed corn in immense quantities among the people, and he sent a great
many captives home, to be trained as gladiators, to fight in the theaters for
their amusement.  In many cases, too, where he found men of talents and
influence among the populace, who had become involved in debt by their
dissipations and extravagance, he paid their debts, and thus secured their
influence on his side.  Men were astounded at the magnitude of these
expenditures, and, while the multitude rejoiced thoughtlessly in the pleasures
thus provided for them, the more reflecting and considerate trembled at the
greatness of the power which was so rapidly rising to overshadow the land.

     It increased their anxiety to observe that Pompey was gaining the same
kind of influence and ascendency too.  He had not the advantage which Caesar
enjoyed in the prodigious wealth obtained from the rich countries over which
Caesar ruled, but he possessed, instead of it, the advantage of being all the
time at Rome, and of securing, by his character and action there, a very wide
personal popularity and influence.  Pompey was, in fact, the idol of the
people.  At one time, when he was absent from Rome, at Naples, he was taken
sick.  After being for some days in considerable danger, the crisis passed
favorably, and he recovered.  Some of the people of Naples proposed a public
thanksgiving to the gods, to celebrate his restoration to health.  The plan
was adopted by acclamation, and the example, thus set, extended from city to
city, until it had spread throughout Italy, and the whole country was filled
with the processions, games, shows, and celebrations, which were instituted
every where in honor of the event.  And when Pompey returned from Naples to
Rome, the towns on the way could not afford room for the crowds that came
forth to meet him.  The high roads, the villages, the ports, says Plutarch,
were filled with sacrifices and entertainments.  Many received him with
garlands on their heads and torches in their hands, and, as they conducted him
along, strewed the way with flowers.

     In fact, Pompey considered himself as standing far above Caesar in fame
and power, and this general burst of enthusiasm and applause, educed by his
recovery from sickness, confirmed him in this idea.  He felt no solicitude, he
said, in respect to Caesar.  He should take no special precautions against any
hostile designs which he might entertain on his return from Gaul.  It was he
himself, he said, that had raised Caesar up to whatever of elevation he had
attained, and he could put him down even more easily than he had exalted him.

     In the mean time, the period was drawing near in which Caesar's command
in the provinces was to expire; and, anticipating the struggle with Pompey
which was about to ensue, he conducted several of his legions through the
passes of the Alps, and advanced gradually, as he had a right to do, across
the country of the Po toward the Rubicon, revolving in his capacious mind, as
he came, the various plans by which he might hope to gain the ascendency over
the power of his mighty rival, and make himself supreme.

     He concluded that it would be his wisest policy not to attempt to
intimidate Pompey by great and open preparations for war, which might tend to
rouse him to vigorous measures of resistance, but rather to cover and conceal
his designs, and thus throw his enemy off his guard.  He advanced, therefore,
toward the Rubicon with a small force.  He established his headquarters at
Ravenna, a city not far from the river, and employed himself in objects of
local interest there, in order to aver as much as possible the minds of the
people from imagining that he was contemplating any great design.  Pompey sent
to him to demand the return of a certain legion which he had lent him from his
own army at a time when they were friends.  Caesar complied with this demand
without any hesitation, and sent the legion home.  He sent with this legion,
also, some other troops which were properly his own, thus evincing a degree of
indifference in respect to the amount of the force retained under his command
which seemed wholly inconsistent with the idea that he contemplated any
resistance to the authority of the government at Rome.

     In the mean time, the struggle at Rome between the partisans of Caesar
and Pompey grew more and more violent and alarming.  Caesar through his
friends in the city, demanded to be elected consul.  The other side insisted
that he must first, if that was his wish, resign the command of his army, come
to Rome, and present himself as a candidate in the character of a private
citizen.  This the constitution of the state very properly required. In answer
to this requisition, Caesar rejoined, that, if Pompey would lay down his
military commands, he would do so too; if not, it was unjust to