But he had risen too high to escape hatred. The plot to assassinate him probably originated in the personal spite of Gains Cassius, but many of the conspirators, in particular Marcus Brutus, were foolish enough to believe that by the death of the dictator the republic could be restored. On 15 March 44 B.c., at a meeting of the Senate held in the hall attached to Pompey's theatre, he fell at the feet of his great nval's statue, pierced by 23 wounds.
In studying Caesar's life, one is especially struck by three points: his sane perception of the concrete fact, his indomitable energy and his many-sidedness. More clearly than any other man of that time, he saw that the i sena torial oligarchy had been proved wholly ncort petent to govern a great empire, and that problem could be solved only by the concer tion of all power in the hands of a single man. Augustus cautiously veiled the change to mon archy; Julius bluntly called things by their real names and paid the penalty with his life. He was an able orator, but of his speeches, warmly praised by Cicero and Quintilian, none has come down to us. A treatise on grammar and one on astronomy have also perished. But his enduring fame as a writer rests upon the seven books of 'Commentaries on the Gallic War' (the eighth book is by Aulus Hirtius) and the three books of 'Commentaries on the Civil War.' The former, essentially a political docu ment, published in 51 ac., is unsurpassed in its succinct simplicity and strength. See COM
MENTARIES ON THE GALLIC WAR.
The principal ancient au thorities are the biographies of Plutarch and Suetonius, Cicero's 'Letters,' Sallust's 'Catiline,) Lucan's 'Pharsalia,) Caesar's own and the Roman histories of Velleius Paterculus, Appian and Dion Cassius. Mommsen's account in his 'History of Rome' is brilliant but over-enthusiastic. The follow ing books may be recommended: Fowler, 'Julius Cmsar and the Foundation of the Roman Imperial System) (New York 1899); Dodge, 'Caesar) (Boston 1892); Drumann, (Geschichte Roms' (Vol. III, ed. by Grabe 1906); Froude, 'Cmsar) (New York 1884) ; Napoleon III, 'Histoire de Jules Cesar' (Eng. trans., New York 1865); continued by Stoffel, (Histoire de Jules Cesar; la guerre civile' (Paris 1887) ; Holmes, 'Caesar's Con quest of Gaul' (London 1899); Holmes, 'An cient Britain and the Invasions of Julius Caesar' (Oxford 1907); Ferrero, 'Greatness and Decline of Rome' (Vol. II Eng. trans., New York 1907); Tyrcll's edition of the 'Cor respondence of Cicero) (Introduction to Vol. V) ; Scott, 'Portraitures of Julius Czsar' (London 1903) ; Roper, 'The Likenesses of Julius Caesar' (in Scribner's Magazine, 1887); Veith, 'Geschichte der Feldztige C. Julius Caesars' (1906); Holmes-Schott-Rosenberg, 'Caesars Feldziige in Gallien und Brittanien,' a condensation of the two works by Holmes, mentioned above. NELSON G. MCCREA. Professor of Latin Literature, Columbia Uni versity.