STYLE OF THE COMMENTARIES.

365 of his temper. He had no sudden bursts of energy, and alternations of passion and inactivity: the elevation of his character was a high one, but it was a level table-land. This calmness and equability pervades his writings, and for this reason they have been thought to want life and energy; whereas in reality they are only deficient in contrast, and light and shade. The uniformity of his active character is interesting as one great element of his success; but the uniformity of style may perhaps be thought by some readers to diminish the interest with which his work is read.

The simple beauty of his language is, as Cicero says, statuesque rather than picturesque. Simple, severe, naked—“ omni ornatu orationis tanquam veste detracto;" and whilst, like a statue, it conveys the idea of perfect and well-proportioned beauty, it banishes all thoughts of human passion. It was this perfect calm propriety, perhaps this absence of all ornamental display, which prevented him from being a successful orator, and his orations from surviving, although he had every external qualification for a speaker1-a fine voice, graceful action, a noble and majestic appearance, and a frank and brilliant delivery.

The very few instances of doubtful Latinity which a hypercritical spirit may detect are scarcely blemishes, and fewer than might have been expected from the observation of Hirtius,2 "Ceteri quam bene atque emendate, nos etiam, quam facile ac celeriter eos perscripserit, scimus." When A. Pollio3 called his "Commentaries" hasty, his criticism was fair; but he was scarcely just in blaming the writer for inaccuracy and credulity. These faults, so far as they existed, were due to circumstances, not to himself. His observing mind wished to collect information with respect to the foreign lands which were the field of his exploits, and the habits of the inhabitants, quite as much as to describe his own tactics and victories. He naturally accepted the accounts given him, even when he had no means of testing their veracity. He is, therefore, not to blame for recording those which subsequent discoveries have shown to be untrue.

His digressions of this character yield in interest to no portion

'Brut. 71, 72, 75.

2 Præf. to book viii.

3 Suet. 56.

of his work; and though some of his accounts of the Gauls and Germans are incorrect, many were subsequently confirmed by the investigations of Tacitus. The only quality in the character of Cæsar which has been sometimes exaggerated is modesty. He does not, indeed, add to his own reputation by detracting from the merits of those who served under him. He is honest, generous, and candid, not only towards them, but also towards his brave barbarian enemies. Nor is he guilty of egotism in the strict literal sense of the term. This, however, is scarcely enough to warrant the eulogy which some have founded upon it. He has too good taste to recount his successes with pretension and arrogance; but he has evidently no objection to be the hero of his own tale. He skilfully veils his selfish, unpatriotic, and ambitious motives; and his object evidently is to leave such memoirs, that future historians may be able to hand down the most favourable character of Cæsar to posterity.

Though himself is his subject, his memoirs are not confessions. Not a record of a weakness appears, nor even of a defect, except that which the Romans would readily forgive, cruelty. His savage waste of human life he recounts with perfect self-complacency. Vanity was his crowning error in his career as a statesman; and though hidden by the reserve with which he speaks of himself, it sometimes discovers itself in the historian.

The "Commentaries" of Cæsar have sometimes been compared with the work of the great soldier historian of Greece, Xenophon. Both are eminently simple and unaffected; but there the parallel ends. The severe contempt of ornament which characterizes the stern Roman is totally unlike the mellifluous sweetness of the Attic writer.

The "Anticatones "1 were two books in answer to Cicero's panegyric of Cato, which he had written immediately after the philosopher's death. Hirtius first, at the request of Cæsar, wrote a reply, and sent it to Cicero from Narbonne. Although he denied the justice of Cicero's eulogium, he secured the good-will of the orator himself by liberal commendations. This prepared

the way for Cæsar's own pamphlet.

' Juv. vi. 338; Suet. 56; Gell. iv. 16; Cic. Div. ii. 9. 2 Ad Att. xii. 40, 41, 44, 45; xiii. 37, 40, 48, 50.

OTHER WORKS OF CAESAR.

367

His philological work, de Analogia, or de Ratione Latine Loquendi, is 'commended by Cicero' for its extreme accuracy, and was held in high estimation by the Roman grammarians. Pro*bably, in liveliness and originality, it was far superior to any of their works. Wonderful to say, it was written during the difficulties and occupations of a journey across the Alps. From the quotations from it, in the writings of the grammarians, we learn that he proposed that the letter V should be written, to mark its connexion with the Greek digamma; and that the new orthography, which substituted lacrime for lucrumæ, maximus for maxumus, &c., was established by his authority.

The "Apophthegmata" is said to have been a collection of wise and witty sayings by himself and others, although it is remarkable not a single witty saying of Cæsar is on record. He began it early in life, and was continually making additions to it.

His poetical attempts consisted of a tragedy entitled "Edipus;" a short piece, the subject of which was the praises of Hercules (both of these, as well as the Apophthegmata, were suppressed by Augustus;3) "Iter," an account of his march into Spain; the astronomical poem already mentioned; and some epigrams, of which three are extant, although their authenticity is somewhat doubtful.*

The character of Cæsar is full of inconsistencies; but they are the inconsistencies which are natural to man, and are sometimes found in men of a strong will and commanding talents who are destitute of moral principle. His faults and excellences, his capability and talents, were the result of his natural powers-not of pains or study. He was one of the greatest as well as one of

1 Cic. Brut. 72.

2 See Nieb. L. R. H. xcv.; Suet. 66; Cic. ad Fam. ix. 16.

3 Meyer's Lat. Anthol. 68, 69, 70.

4 A. Gellius tells us (xvii. 9) that he was the author of Letters to Oppius, written in cipher, of which he gives the following interesting description:"Erat conventum inter eos clandestinum de commutando situ literarum ut inscriptio quidem alia alius locum et nomen teneret sed in legendo locus cuique suus et potestas restitueretur." Suetonius (Vit. Cæs. 56) describes in the same way the nature of the cipher which he used, and illustrates it by saying that he used to put d for a, and so forth.

the worst men who ever lived. He was an Epicurean in faith, and yet he had all the superstition which so often accompanies infidelity. His habitual humanity and clemency towards his fellow-citizens were interrupted by instances of stern and pitiless cruelty. He shed tears at the assassination of Pompey, and yet could massacre the Usipetes and the Tenchteri, and acted like a savage barbarian towards his chivalrous foe Vercingetorix. He delighted in the pure and refined pleasures of literature, and his intimate associates were men of taste and genius; and yet he was the slave of his sensual passions, and indulged in the grossest profligacy. He was candid, friendly, confiding, generous; but he was attracted by brilliant talents, and the qualities of the head, rather than the affections of the heart. The mainspring of his conduct as a general and a statesman exhibits a strong will and perfect self-reliance; and in like manner he owes the energy of his style of writing, and the persuasive force of his oratory, to the influence of no other minds: they are the natural fruit of clear perceptions, a penetrating intellect, an observing mind capable of taking a wide and comprehensive view of its subject. Men of varied acquirements and extensive knowledge, but of pedantic taste, are said to talk like books; the writings of. Cæsar, on the contrary, are like lively and unconstrained conversation: they have all the reality which constitutes the great charm of his character.

He was above affectation, for his was a mind born to lead the age in which he lived, not to think with others merely in deference to established usage and custom; and although his natural vanity and self-confidence led him to set his own character in the most favourable light, his vanity was honest: he had no intention wilfully to deceive. His wonderful memory fitted him for the task of faithfully recording the events in which he himself was an actor; and his power of attention and abstraction, which enabled him to write, converse, and dictate at the same time, shows how valuable must be a work on which were concentrated at once all the energies of his penetrating mind.

LIFE OF SALLUST-HIS INSINCERITY-HIS HISTORICAL WORKSHE WAS A BITTER OPPONENT OF THE NEW ARISTOCRACY-PROFLIGACY OF THAT ORDER-HIS STYLE COMPARED WITH THAT OF THUCYDIDES-HIS VALUE AS AN HISTORIAN-TROGUS POMPEIUS HIS HISTORIÆ PHILIPPICE.

C. SALLUSTIUS CRISPUS (BORN B. C. 85.)

C. SALLUSTIUS CRISPUS was fifteen years junior to Cæsar: he was born at Amiternum1 in the territory of the Sabines, A. U. C. 669, B. c. 85. He was a member of a plebeian family; but, having served the offices of tribune and quæstor, attained senatorial rank. In A. U. C. 704, he was expelled from the senate 2 by the censors Ap. Claudius Pulcher and L. Calpurnius Piso.3 It is said that, although he was "a most severe censurer of the licentiousness of others," he was a profligate man himself, and that the scandal of an intrigue with Fausta, the daughter of Sulla and the wife of Milo, was the cause of his degradation.

Through the influence of Cæsar, whose party he espoused, he was restored to his rank, and subsequently became prætor. He accompanied his patron in the African war, and was made governor of Numidia. Whilst in that capacity, he accumulated by rapacity and extortion enormous wealth, which he lavished on expensive but tasteful luxury. The gardens on the Quirinal which bore his name were celebrated for their beauty; and beneath their alleys, and porticoes, surrounded by the choicest works of art, he avoided the tumultuous scenes of civil strife which ushered in the empire, and devoted his retirement to composing the historical records which survived him. His death. took place B. c. 35.

'Matth. H. L. 2 Heind. on Hor. Sat. p. 40. 4 Macrob. Saturn. ii. 9.

3 Dion. Cas. xi. 63.

5 Dion. xliii. 9.