Plutarch's Lives Volume III Part 28

[Footnote 444: Plutarch should probably have called him only Molo. He was a native of Alabanda in Caria. Cicero often mentions his old master, but always by the name of Molo only. He calls the rhetorician, who was the master of Q. Mucius Scaevola, consul B.C. 117. Apollonius, who was also a native of Alabanda.]

[Footnote 445: See c. 54.]

[Footnote 446: See the first chapter of the Life of Lucullus.]

[Footnote 447: Cn. Cornelius Dolabella, consul B.C. 81, afterwards was governor of Macedonia as proconsul, in which office he was charged with maladministration. Cicero (_Brutus_, c. 71, 92) mentions this trial. Drumann places it in B.C. 77. Cicero (_Brutus_, c. 72) gives his opinion of the eloquence of Caesar. (Suetonius, _Caesar_, 4; Vell.

Paterculus, ii. 42.)]

[Footnote 448: His name was Caius. He was consul B.C. 63 with Cicero.

The trial, which was in B.C. 76, of course related to misconduct prior to that date. The trial was not held in Greece. M. Lucullus was the brother of L. Lucullus, and was Praetor in Rome at the time of the trial.]

[Footnote 449: Some amplification is necessary here in order to preserve Plutarch's metaphor. He was fond of such poetical turns.

Nec poterat quemquam placidi pellacia ponti Subdola pellicere in fraudem ridentibus undis.

_Lucretius_, v. 1002.]

[Footnote 450: See the Life of Pompeius, c. 48.]

[Footnote 451: The military tribunes, it appears, were now elected by the people, or part of them at least. Comp. Liv. 43, c. 14.]

[Footnote 452: His aunt Julia and his wife Cornelia died during his quaestors.h.i.+p, probably B.C. 68.]

[Footnote 453: The Roman word is Imagines. There is a curious pa.s.sage about the Roman Imagines in Polybius (vi. 53, ed. Bekker)--"Viginti clarissimarum familiarum imagines antelatae sunt." Tacit. _Annal._ iii.

76.]

[Footnote 454: The origin of this custom with respect to women is told by Livius (5. c. 50). It was introduced after the capture of the city by the Gauls, as a reward to the women for contributing to the ransom demanded by the enemy.]

[Footnote 455: Antistius Vetus (Vell. Paterculus, ii. 18) was Praetor of the division of Iberia which was called Baetica. His son C.

Antistius Veius was Quaestor B.C. 61 under Caesar in Iberia.]

[Footnote 456: She was a daughter of Q. Pompeius Rufus, the son-in-law of Sulla, who lost his life B.C. 88, during the consuls.h.i.+p of his father. See the Life of Sulla, c. 6 notes. The daughter who is here mentioned was Julia, Caesar's only child.]

[Footnote 457: This was the road from Rome to Capua, which was begun by the Censor Appius Claudius Caecus B.C. 312, and afterwards continued to Brundisium. It commenced at Rome and ran in nearly a direct line to Terracina across the Pomptine marshes.

The appointment as commissioner (curator) for repairing and making roads was an office of honour, and one that gave a man the opportunity of gaining popular favour.]

[Footnote 458: Caesar was Curule aedile B.C. 65.]

[Footnote 459: Q. Metellus Pius, Consul B.C. 80. Caesar's compet.i.tors were P. Servilius Isauricus, consul B.C. 79, under whom Caesar had fought against the pirates, and Q. Lutatius Catulus, consul B.C. 78, the son of the Catulus whom Marius put to death. Caesar was already a Pontifex, but the acquisition of the post of Pontifex Maximus, which places him at the head of religion, was an object of ambition to him in his present position. The office was for life, it brought him an official residence in the Via Sacra, and increased political influence.]

[Footnote 460: The conspiracy of Catiline happened B.C. 63, when Cicero was consul. See the Life of Cicero, c. 10, &c. Sall.u.s.tius (_Catilina_, c. 51, &c.) has given the speeches of Caesar and Cato in the debate upon the fate of the conspirators who had been seized. If we have not the words of Caesar, there is no reason for supposing that we have not the substance of his speech. Whatever might be Caesar's object, his proposal was consistent with law and a fair trial. The execution of the conspirators was a violent and illegal measure.]

[Footnote 461: This circ.u.mstance is mentioned by Sall.u.s.tius (_Catilina_, 49), apparently as having happened when Caesar was leaving the Senate, after one of the debates previous to that on which it was determined to put the conspirators to death. Sall.u.s.tius mentions Catulus and C. Piso as the instigators. He also observes that they had tried to prevail on Cicero to criminate Caesar by false testimony. (See Drumann, _Tullii_, -- 40, p. 531.)]

[Footnote 462: C. Scribonius Curio, consul B.C. 76, father of the Curio mentioned in the Life of Pompeius, c. 58, who was a tribune B.C.

50.]

[Footnote 463: Cicero wrote his book on his Consuls.h.i.+p B.C. 60, in which year Caesar was elected consul, and it was published at that time. Caesar was then rising in power, and Cicero was humbled. It would be as well for him to say nothing on this matter which Plutarch alludes to (_Ad Attic._ ii. 1).

Cicero wrote first a prose work on his consuls.h.i.+p in Greek (_Ad Attic._ i. 19), and also a poem in three books in Latin hexameters (_Ad Attic._ ii. 3).]

[Footnote 464: Attic drachmae, as usual with Plutarch, when he omits the denomination of the money. In his Life of Cato (c. 26) Plutarch estimates the sum at 1250 talents. This impolitic measure of Cato tended to increase an evil that had long been growing in Rome, the existence of a large body of poor who looked to the public treasury for part of their maintenance. (See the note on the Life of Caius Gracchus, c. 5.)]

[Footnote 465: Caesar was Praetor B.C. 62. He was Praetor designatus in December B.C. 63, when he delivered his speech on the punishment of Catiline's a.s.sociates.]

[Footnote 466: Some notice of this man is contained in the Life of Lucullus, c. 34, 38, and the Life of Cicero, c. 29. The affair of the Bona Dea, which made a great noise in Rome, is told very fully in Cicero's letters to Atticus (i. 12, &c.), which were written at the time.

The feast of the Bona Dea was celebrated on the first of May, in the house of the Consul or of the Praetor Urba.n.u.s. There is some further information about it in Plutarch's Romanae Quaestiones (ed. Wyttenbach, vol. ii.). According to Cicero (_De Haruspic.u.m Responsis_, c. 17), the real name of the G.o.ddess was unknown to the men; and Dacier considers it much to the credit of the Roman ladies that they kept the secret so well. For this ingenious remark I am indebted to Kaltwa.s.ser's citation of Dacier; I have not had curiosity enough to look at Dacier's notes.]

[Footnote 467: The divorce of Pompeia is mentioned by Cicero (_Ad Attic._ i. 13).]

[Footnote 468: Clodius was tried B.C. 61, and acquitted by a corrupt jury (judices). (See Cicero, _Ad Attic._ i. 16.) Kaltwa.s.ser appears to me to have mistaken this pa.s.sage. The judices voted by ballot, which had been the practice in Rome in such trials since the pa.s.sing of the Lex Ca.s.sia B.C. 137. Drumanu remarks (_Geschichte Roms_, Claudii, p.

214, note) that Plutarch has confounded the various parts of the procedure at the trial; and it may be so. See the Life of Cicero, c.

29. There is a dispute as to the meaning of the term Judicia Populi, to which kind of Judicia the Lex Ca.s.sia applied. (Orelli, _Onomasticon_, Index Legum, p. 279.)]

[Footnote 469: Caesar was Praetor (B.C. 60) of Hispania Ulterior or Baetica, which included Lusitania.]

[Footnote 470: A similar story is told by Suetonius (_Caesar_, 7) and Dion Ca.s.sius (37. c. 52), but they a.s.sign it to the time of Caesar's quaestors.h.i.+p in Spain.]

[Footnote 471: The Calaici, or Callaici, or Gallaeci, occupied that part of the Spanish peninsula which extended from the Douro north and north-west to the Atlantic. (Strabo, p. 152.) The name still exists in the modern term Gallica. D. Junius Brutus, consul B.C. 138, and the grandfather of one of Caesar's murderers, triumphed over the Callaici and Lusitani, and obtained the name Callaicus. The transactions of Caesar in Lusitania are recorded by Dion Ca.s.sius (37. c. 52).]

[Footnote 472: Many of the creditors were probably Romans. (Velleius Pat. ii 43, and the Life of Lucullus, c. 7.)]

[Footnote 473: Caesar was consul B.C. 59.]

[Footnote 474: The measure was for the distribution of Public land (Dion Ca.s.sius, 38. c. 1, &c. &c.) and it was an Agrarian Law. The law comprehended also the land about Capua (Campa.n.u.s ager). Twenty thousand Roman citizens were settled on the allotted lands (Vell.

Pater, ii. 44; Appia.n.u.s, _Civil Wars_, ii. 10). Cicero, who was writing to Atticus at the time, mentions this division of the lands as an impolitic measure. It left the Romans without any source of public income in Italy except the Vicesimae (_Ad Attic._ ii. 16, 18).

The Romans, who were fond of jokes and pasquinades against those who were in power, used to call the consuls.h.i.+p of Caesar, the consuls.h.i.+p of Caius Caesar and Julius Caesar, in allusion to the inactivity of Bibulus, who could not resist his bolder colleague's measures. (Dion Ca.s.sius, 38. c. 8.)]

[Footnote 475: The marriage with Pompeius took place in Caesar's consuls.h.i.+p. _Life of Cra.s.sus_, c. 16.

This Servilius Caepio appears to be Q. Servilius Caepio, the brother of Servilia, the mother of M. Junius Brutus, one of Caesar's a.s.sa.s.sins.

Servilius Caepio adopted Brutus, who is accordingly sometimes called Q.

Caepio Brutus. (Cicero, _Ad Divers._ vii. 21; _Ad Attic._ ii. 24.) Piso was L. Calpurnius Piso, who with Aulus Gabinius was consul B.C. 58.]

[Footnote 476: Q. Considius Gallus. He is mentioned by Cicero several times in honourable terms (_Ad Attic._ ii. 24).]

[Footnote 477: Cicero went into exile B.C. 58. See the Life of Cicero, c. 30.

Dion Ca.s.sius (38. c. 17) states that Caesar was outside of the city with his army, ready to march to his province, at the time when Clodius proposed the bill of penalties against him. Cicero says the same (_Pro Sestio_, c. 18). Caesar, according to Dion, was not in favour of the penalties contained in the bill; but he probably did not exert himself to save Cicero. Pompeius, who had presided at the comitia in which Clodius was adrogated into a Plebeian family, in order to qualify him to be a tribune, treated Cicero with neglect (Life of Pompeius, c. 46). Caesar owed Cicero nothing. Pompeius owed him much. And Cicero deserved his punishment.]

[Footnote 478: Caesar's Gallic campaign began B.C. 58.

He carried on the war actively for eight years, till the close of B.C.

51. But he was still proconsul of Gallia in the year B.C. 50. Plutarch has not attempted a regular narrative of Caesar's campaigns, which would have been foreign to his purpose (see the Life of Alexander, c.

1); nor can it be attempted in these notes. The great commander has left in his Commentary on the Gallic War an imperishable record of his subjugation of Gaul.]