THE WIVES OF THE (LESARS. 147 



noble ascendant of the patrician order had gradually declined among 

 the crimes and low impurities of faction , the tribunals were polluted 

 with venality ; the laws were impotent or feeble ; and as the safe- 

 guard of the state, the splendid power of the patricians, waned, the 

 brutal spirit of democracy had risen into terrible and reckless despo- 

 tism. Clodius, by flattering the basest passions of the populace, had 

 kindled such seditious fires in Rome, that the degenerate Senate feared 

 to stir the embers of the dying conflagration ; and the judges were 

 reduced to the expedient of sparing an offender's guilt beneath the 

 ambiguities of an extorted absolution. 



The relatives and friends of Caesar were observed to take consider- 

 able interest in these proceedings. He, on the contrary, maintained a 

 calm composure. Already well informed of the complexion of Pom- 

 peia, he was far from thinking her intrigue with Clodius the only error 

 of her prurient disposition. When interrogated as a witness on the case, 

 his answers were devoid of inculpation and reproach -, and when 

 the accuser asked him, " Why he had repudiated Pompeia ?" he 

 replied with dignity, " Because the wife of Caesar should be as free 

 from suspicion as from guilt."* 



Shortly after the repudiation of Pompeia, Caesar became the hus- 

 band of Calpurnia, the daughter of Lucius Piso, whom he had emi- 

 nently served in his solicitation of the consulate. The political results 

 of this alliance were reprobated with severity by Cato,t who obtested 

 the immortal gods to witness the prostration of the commonwealth to 

 an insidious traffic of connexion, by which the offices and dignities of 

 state were shamefully obtained. But Caesar, in his election of Cal- 

 purnia, had aimed at the possession of a female endued with all the 

 virtues of a better age, and ornamented, at the same time, with the 

 graces and acquirements of refinement. The beauty of Calpurnia 

 was her least distinction. Her origin was lineally traced to the pious, 

 wise, and philosophic Numa, the second king of Rome j and the 

 genuine virtues of the peaceful monarch were splendidly revived in 

 his remote and amiable descendant. To a mind of native strength 

 and vast expansion, she added the advantage of a pure and cultivated 

 eloquence, surpassed by that of few of the distinguished orators of 

 ancient times. These inherent qualities were joined with a reserved 

 and simple majesty, with the commanding charms of purity and 

 beauty, and conspired to form a personage whom Caesar duly rever- 

 enced and loved. Nor did the character of Caesar assert a less direct 

 ascendant on Calpurnia's mind. She beheld in it a combination of 

 exalted passions, co-operating in subservience to the love of fame. 

 The passages of Caesar's life, in boyhood even, were dignified by 

 heroism. His conjugal alliances had proved him mindful of his glory 

 and sensible to female worth. His repudiation of Cossutia, at the sacri- 

 fice of wealth, was the effect of justice to her merits ; he had left a me- 

 morable example of a husband's tenderness throughout his union with 

 Cornelia ; he had visited the frailty of Pompeia with the simple mea- 



* Plutarch in vita Caesar. 



t "Nee immerito, frustra licet, vociferatus turn Cato, rein intolerandum esse, 

 1 nuptiarum lenociniis imperia Vendi et Rempublicam prodi.' " Comm. Bern, 

 in Sue ton. 



