BOCK I I fllE WISDOM OF JULIUS C.VSA1L Oft 



of king, and some were set on to salute him with that title 

 or, he passed by. Caesar, however, finding the cry weak and 

 poor, put it off thus in a kind of jest, as if they had mis 

 taken his surname : &quot; Non rex sum, sed Caesar/ 8 I am not 

 king, but Caesar,* an expression, the pregnancy of which it 

 is difficult to exhaust ; for tirst, it was a refusal of the name, 

 though not serious ; again, it displayed infinite confidence 

 and magnanimity in presuming Caesar to be the greater 

 title, a presumption which posterity has fully confirmed. 

 But chiefly the expression is to be admired as betraying a 

 great incentive to his designs, as if the state strove with him 

 for a mere name, with which even mean families were in 

 vested. For Rex was a surname with the Romans, as well 

 as King is with us. The last saying I shall mention, refers 

 to Metellus : as so:;n as Caesar had seized Rome, he made 

 straightway to the aerarium to seize the money of the state ; 

 but Metellus being tribune, forestalled his purpose, and denied 

 him entrance : whereupon Caesar threatened, if he did not 

 desist, to lay him dead on the spot. But presently checking 

 himself, added, &quot;Adolescens, durius est mini hoc dicere quam 

 facere ;&quot; Young man, it is harder for me to say this than to 

 do it. u A sentence compounded of the greatest terror and 

 clemency tha f -rculd proceed out of the mouth of man. But 

 to conclude- .juh Cae^r. It is evident he was quite aware 

 of his proficiency in this respect, from his scoffing at the idea 

 of the ^ange resolution of Sylla, which some one expressed 

 about his resignation of the dictatorship: &quot;Sylla,&quot; said Caesar, 

 &quot;was unlettered, and therefore knew not how to dictate.&quot; x 



A &quot;A here we should cease descanting on the concurrence 

 of military virtue with learning, as no example could come 

 with any grace after Alexander and Caesar, were it not for 

 an extraordinary case touch ir^ Xenophon, which raised that 

 philosopher from the depths ^&amp;gt;L scorn to the highest pinnacle 

 of admiration. In his youth, without either command or 

 experience, that philosopher followed the expedition of 



Suet. Lifa Jul. Caes. 79. 



1 The point of this expression arises from the absence of the article in 

 the Latin tongue, which made rex, a king, exactly convertible with the 

 title df those families who bore Rex for their surname. With us, also, 

 there are many individuals who bear the name of King, and among the 

 French the n:unc Koi is not uncommon, Ed. 



L 1 lutarchj cf. (Jic. ad Att. x. 8. Suet. Life, Ixxvii. 



f 



