b itimate honours which satisfied Cicero, wished to com bine in his own person every qualification which could smooth the way to absolute authority. Ile saw that eloquence was necessary to give eclat to wealth, or to justify its misapplication. Crassus, the richest man in Rome, never had been respected, because he was known to be of sordid habits and mean capacity ; and though be bad ambition to aspire to absolute power, and money sufficient to have bought it, yet, as he wanted abilities to wield such a cumbersome and dangerous instrument, he never became an object of jealousy to the state. Un fortunately all these qualities were combined in Cxsar : his ambition knew no bounds ; his wealth, which was considerable, was most profusely lavished on the needy and undeserving ; whilst his abilities ranked him with the first characters that Rome or the world ever pro duced.
To improve his eloquence, he resolved to spend the time of his retreat from Rome, under Apollonius Molo, a celebrated rhetorician at Rhodes, who had also been the master of Cicero ; and who thus had the honour of having for his pupils two of the most extraordinary men who have figured on the theatre of the world. On his way to Rhodes, he was taken by pirates, with whom he lived upwards of a month, till he could procure money to purchase his freedom. During this interval we are told by Plutarch, that he lived very much at his ease, engaging in all the exercises and diversions of the pi rates, delivering orations to them, and calling them brutes and barbarians, when they did not appreciate the merit of his compositions. He also threatened to cru cify them all, as soon as lie should obtain his liberty : the pirates laughed at these threats, and considered him as a pleasant fellow : it was not long, however, before he had an opportunity of carrying them into effect. He manned a few vessels in the port of Miletus, and attack ed the pirates whilst they were lying at anchor ill per fect security. He took the greater part of them prison ers, and immediately applied to Junius Silanus, pro consul of Bithynia, for an order for their execution ; this being refused, he hastened to the place where he had left them, and had them all nailed to the cross, be fore instructions could arrive to prevent it.
After the fears excited by the proscription were re moved, and the vanquished Marian party began to think of again lifting its head, Cxsar was earnestly solicited by his friends to return to Rome, that the party might be supported by his known talents and intrepidity. Ile began his political career in the way common amongst yGlill! patriots at Rome, as well as in other countries, by professing great zeal for the purity of the adminis tration, and by publicly impeaching some persons of great influence, and high in authority. Though he was baffled in several of these attempts, lie did not fail to gain his end, by thus securing the admiration and confidence of the multitude. His purse was always open to the
indigent ; his eloquence and his patronage were at the service of the most profligate : his only object was to gain devoted partisans, and he was nowise scrupulous about the means employed to obtain them. He soon had a proof of the favour of the people, in carrying the office of tribune of the soldiers, in opposition to a power ful competitor ; and, shortly after, it was manifested in a more decided manner, when he pronounced the fune ral oration of his aunt Julia, the wife of Marius. On this occasion, he had the hardiness to produce the images of Marius, which had not been seen during the administration of Sella and the prevalence of his party, as all of the Marian faction had been declared to be enemies to the state. A great clamour was raised against Cxsar by the patrician party, whose authority had been established by Sylla ; and it is probable that he might have suffered for this indiscretion, had he not been supported by the unanimous voice of the people, whose acclamations and avowed admiration showed his enemies that it would be in vain to attempt any thing against him.
lie continued to cultivate the favour of the people by acts of unbounded munificence ; and those who had be gun to apprehend danger from his designs, now dis missed their fears, by anticipating the total ruin of his fortune. Ilis expenditure during his xdileship, in the exhibition of games and public entertainments, exceed ed any thing that had been seen at Rome on similar oc casions. He produced three hundred and twenty pair of gladiators, to slaughter each other for public amuse ment ; a kind of entertainment of which the Roman peo ple were distractedly fond, and which sufficiently marks their brutal and ferocious character.* in the midst of these popular exhibitions, he ventured to give a still more daring and decided proof of his contempt for the aristocratical party, than any which he had hitherto dis played. He caused images of Marius to be made of the most costly materials, and most exquisite workmanship, together with a representation of his victories over the Cimbri, and in one night placed them in the capital. Nothing could exceed the public astonishment, when they Were next day exhibited to view. The senate was assembled on the occasion ; and Lutatius Catulus, one of the principal men of Rome, publicly accused Cxsar of a design against the state, declaring, that no longer content with sapping the foundation of the common wealth, he now attacked it by open force. But Cxsar's abilities, profusion, and intrepidity, had secured him so many friends, even in the senate, that he was publicly ac quitted.