ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 33 



strove in his battles for victory, and did not shrink from con- 

 fronting the greatest champion of the pen in those times, Cicero 

 the orator. Again, in his book of apophthegms, he deemed it 

 more honorable to note the wise sayings of others, than to 

 record every word of his own as an oracle or apophthegm, as 

 many vain princes are by flattery urged to do.* And yet, 

 should I enumerate any of them, as I did before those of Alex- 

 ander, we should find them to be such as Solomon points to in 

 the saying : " Verba sapientum tanquam aculei, et tanquam 

 clavi in altum defixi."y Of these, however, I shall only relate 

 three, not so remarkable for elegance as for vigor and efficacy. 

 He who could appease a mutiny in his army by a word, must 

 certainly be regarded as a master of language. This Caesar 

 performed under the following circumstances. The generals 

 always addressed the army as milites ; the magistrates, on the 

 other hand, in their charges to the people used the word 

 Quirites. Now the soldiers being in tumult, and feignedly 

 praying to be disbanded, with a view to draw Caesar to other 

 conditions, the latter resolved not to succumb, and, after a short 

 pause, began his speech with " Ego, Quirites,"* which implied 

 they were at once cashiered : upon which, the soldiers were so 

 astonished and confused that they relinquished their demands, 

 and begged to be addressed by the old appellation of milites. 

 The second saying thus transpired. Caesar extremely affected 

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

 title as he passed by. Caesar, however, finding the cry weak 

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

 his surname : " Non rex sum, sed Caesar,"o I am not king, 

 but Caesar, an expression, the pregnancy of which it is difficult 

 to exhaust ; for, first, 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 invested. 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 soon 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 



