He now proceeded to check, by wholesale enactments, as far as in him lay, the social evils which had long flourished in the city. During the year 46 B.C., also, lie conferred a benefit on Rome and on the world by the reformation of the calendar, which had been greatly abused by the pontifical college for political purposes. After quelling an insurrection which now broke out in Spain, where Pompey's sons, Cneius and Sextus, had collected an army, he received the title of " Father of his Country," and also of imikrator, was made dictator and prafectus niorum for life, consul for 10 years; his person was declared sacred, and even divine; he obtained a body-guard of knights and senators; his statue was placed in the temples; his portrait was struck on coins; the month Quintilis was called Julius in his honor; and on all public occasions he was per mitted to wear the triumphal robe. He now proposed to make a digest of the whole Roman law for public use, to found libraries for the same purpose. to drain the Pon tine marshes, to enlarge the harbor of Ostia, to dig a canal through the isthmus of Corinth. and to quell the inroads of the barbarians on the eastern frontiers; but in the midst of these vast designs he was cut off by assassination on the ides (15th) of Mar., 44 B.C. The details of this crime—the greatest disaster that could have befallen the Roman world, as subsequent events showed—are too familiar to require narration. It is sufficient to say that, of the sixty aristocrats who were in the conspiracy, many had partaken of C.'s generosity, and all of his clemency. A few, like Brutus, out of a weak and formal conscientiousness, based on theory rather than insight, were probably offended by C.'s desire to change the form of government into a hereditary monarchy; but the most., like Cassius, were inspired by a spleenful hatred of the dictator, and the base ambition of regaining power at all hazards.
C., who was 56 years of age when lie was murdered, was of a noble and kingly pres ence, tall of stature, and possessing a countenance which, though pale and thin with thought, was always animated by the light of his black eyes. He was baldheaded (at
least in the latter part of his life), wore no heard, and though of a rather delicate con stitution naturally, he ultimately attained to the most vigorous health. His besetting sin was sensuality; but without meaning to detract from the criminality of his con duct in this respect, it may be said that it was as much the sin of the times in which he lived as his own, and that the superlative grandeur of his position gave a prominence to his licentiousness which a more humble lot would have escaped. His intellect was marvelously versatile. In everything he excelled.. He was not only the first general and statesman of his age, but lie was—excepting Cicero—its greatest orator. As a his torian, he has never been surpassed and rarely equaled in simplicity and vigor of style, and in the truthfulness with which lie narrates events of which he was an eye-witness He was, in addition, a mathematician, philologist. jurist, and architect, and always took great pleasure in literary society. Most of his writings have been lost, though their titles are preserved; but we still possess his invaluable Cennmentarii (generally known as "Caesar's Commentaries on the Gallic and Civil Wars"). The editio prineeps was printed at Rome 1449. C.'s life was formally written in ancient times by Suctonius and Plu tarch. There are modern lives by Delorme, Napoleon III. (1865), and J. A. Fronde (1879).
CzESAR, Sir Jumus, 1557-1636; an English statesman, educated at Oxford and the university of Paris; doctor of civil and canon law. He was master of the rolls. and held other high offices under Elizabeth and James I. He was noted for a gracious dignity of character, and for wide beneficence to the poor.