166 PLINY'S NATTTEAL HISTOKY. [Book VII. 



CHAP. 25. (25.) VIGOUR OF MIND. 



The most remarkable instance, I think, of vigour of mind in 

 any man ever born, was that of Caesar, the Dictator. I am not 

 at present alluding to his valour and courage, nor yet his ex- 

 alted genius, which was capable of embracing everything under 

 the face of heaven, but I am speaking of that innate vigour 

 of mind, which was so peculiar to him, and that promptness 

 which seemed to act like a flash of lightning. We find it stated 

 that he was able to write or read, and, at the same time, to 

 dictate and listen. He could dictate to his secretaries four 

 letters at once, and those on the most important business ; and, 

 indeed, if he was busy about nothing else, as many as seven. 

 He fought as many as fifty pitched battles, being the only com- 

 mander who exceeded M. Marcellus, 64 in this respect, he having 

 fought only thirty-nine. 65 In addition, too, to the victories 

 gained by him in the civil wars, one million one hundred and 

 ninety-two thousand men were slain by him in his battles. 

 For my own part, however, I am not going to set it down as a 

 subject for high renown, what was really an outrage committed 

 upon mankind, even though he may have been acting under 

 the strong influence of necessity ; and, indeed, he himself 

 confesses as much, in his omission to state the number of persons 

 who perished by the sword in the civil wars. 



CHAP. 26. CLEMENCY AND GREATNESS OF MIND. 



With much more justice we may award credit to Pompeius 

 Magnus, for having taken from the pirates 66 no less than eight 

 hundred and forty-six vessels : though at the same time, over 

 and above the great qualities previously mentioned, we must 

 with equal justice give Caesar the peculiar credit of a remark- 



64 The conqueror of Syracuse, and five times consul at Rome. He was 

 born B.C. 268, and was slain in an engagement with Hannibal, B.C. 208, 

 in the vicinity of Venusia. 



65 Ajasson remarks concerning the number of battles in which Caesar is 

 said to have been engaged, that it has probably been much exceeded by 

 some of the great warriors of later times. He says that an individual, 

 " who was raised over our heads and over all Europe, and so reigned much 

 too long," was personally engaged in nearly 300 battles. B. 



!6 Who infested the coasts of Cilicia, and whom he dislodged from their 

 strongholds, and almost utterly extirpated. 



