148 THE WIVES OF THE CAESARS. 



sure of divorce ; and where an ordinary spirit would have used the 

 means of legal persecution, Caesar had displayed the noble lenity of 

 pity and forbearance. His demeanour had been marked throughout 

 with magniminity. When Rome was crouching fearfully beneath 

 the power of Sylla, and the emissaries of his wrath were stealthily 

 employed in quest of even latent enmities, the intrepid Caesar had 

 produced upon the tribune in his funeral oration on his aunt and 

 wife the images of Marius, who, with his adherents, had been pro- 

 claimed a public enemy to Rome. He had skilfully discharged the 

 duties of his various gradations, as a quaestor, as a praetor, as an 

 aedile, when monuments of his munificence and taste were visible 

 throughout the city. All the actions of his life were fraught with an 

 aspiring genius. Calpurnia dwelt with admiration on his energy, 

 when he replied to the benediction of his mother, as he left her to so- 

 licit the pontificate " This day, my mother, thou shalt see thy soil 

 the pontiff, or an exile." His glory was associated with the military 

 fame and senatorial * eloquence of Rome. His victories, external or 

 domestic, were adorned with clemency. Taste and refinement were 

 conspicuous in his pursuits; he was a philosopher and scholar, a 

 triumphant advocate in senates, an invincible leader in the field. If 

 glory was the object of a woman's passion, the allurement could have 

 nowhere shone with such resplendance as in Caesar ; and if the meaner 

 passions of the temperament prevailed, his expressive countenance, 

 commanding stature, and symmetrical proportions presented an un- 

 usual conformation of comeliness and manly beauty. Through Caesar's 

 rapid progress to consummate rule, the increase of his fame, and the 

 submissive acquiesence of the people in his power, affected not Cal- 

 purnia's equanimity ; and though she shared, to some extent, the 

 eminent distinctions lavished on her husband by indiscriminating 

 flattery, yet the same redundant spirit was profuse of special honours 

 to herself; and the inventions of servility and adulation were ex- 

 hausted to extol, by title or devotion, the mortal wife of the " divine 

 usurper." Yet the moderation of Calpurnia was conspicuous in 

 every condition of her fortune ; the splendid elevation of her husband 

 had neither changed her modest affability of manners, nor the whole- 

 some temper of her serene and stedfast mind. But if Caesar's exalta- 

 tion had raised her admiration, it also had alarmed her love ; still, 

 apprehensive of his danger, she was studious of his fame ; and though 

 his noble nature little needed such suggestions, Calpurnia fed the 

 flood of his abundant clemency by the generous effusions of her own. 

 She is said to have interceded warmly for Ligarius ; but Caesar saw 

 an absolute necessity of sacrificing such an adversary, and proceeded 

 to the senate, inexorable to her prayers. The exquisite defence of 

 Cicero disarmed his wrath and caught his generosity ; and when he 

 reached that touching passage of his speech, (< Nihil habet necfortuna 



* Tacitus comparatively distinguishes the eloquence of Caesar by its splendour: 

 " At strictior Calvus numerosior Asinius, Splendidi or C&sar, amarior Coelius, gra- 

 vior Brutus, vehementior et plenior et valentior Cicero." De Orat. In the same 

 masterly dialogue he observes : " Concedamus sane C. Caesari, ut propter mag- 

 nitudinem cogitationum et occupationes rerum minus eloquentia effecerit, quam 

 divinum ejus ingenium postulabat." Id. Praise, indeed ! 



