CAESAR 



1043 



CAFFEINE 



this victory reached Rome, Caesar was ap- 

 pointed dictator for one year, consul for five 

 and tribune for life. 



At the Height of His Power. Before return- 

 ing to Rome Caesar brought to a successful 

 conclusion the war which had been undertaken 

 in order to place Cleopatra on the throne of 

 Egypt, and proved himself not strong enough 

 to resist the charms of the queen who a few 

 years later played so disastrously with the life 

 of Antony. Returning through Pontus, he de- 

 feated Pharnaces and informed the Senate of 

 his victory in the laconic dispatch, "Veni, vidi, 

 Vid" (I came, I saw, I conquered). He de- 

 feated the remaining forces of the party of 

 Pompey at Thapsus in Northern Africa, and 

 Cato killed himself at Utica rather than fall 

 into the hands of this universal conqueror. 

 Now undisputed master of the Roman world, 

 Caesar showed his greatness and magnanimity 

 by pardoning the followers of Pompey. The 

 dictatorship was bestowed upon him for ten 

 years by a grateful people, and his victories 

 were celebrated by magnificent triumphs. 



New Jealousies. After his return from de- 

 feating the two sons of Pompey in Spain, in 

 the year 45 B. c., fresh honors were conferred 

 upon him. He was made impcrator for life, 

 and his portrait was stamped upon the coins of 

 the realm. In the correction of the calendar, 

 which had fallen into great confusion, he per- 

 formed an important service, and he proposed 

 many public improvements, such as founding 

 public libraries, draining the marshes, enlarg- 

 ing the harbor at Ostia and digging a canal 

 across the Isthmus of Corinth. None of these 

 designs, however, was he allowed to carry out, 

 for the aristocrats were still suspicious of him, 

 fearing that he meant to make himself king. 

 At a public festival, indeed, a crown was 

 offered him by Mark Antony, but he refused 

 it unwillingly, if the reports of historians are 

 to be believed. Antony made reference to 

 this in his masterly funeral oration over Caesar, 

 in the words, according to Shakespeare 



You all did see that on the Lupercal 



I thrice presented him a kingly crown, 



Which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition? 



Yet Brutus says he was ambitious ; 



And, sure, he is an honourable man. 



I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke, 



But here I am to speak what I do know. 



The people had greeted this renunciation with 

 the wildest enthusiasm, but the suspicions of 

 the aristocrats were not quieted, and a plot was 

 formed to kill him. 

 On March 15, in the year 44 B. c., he was 



assassinated, receiving over a score of wounds 

 from the daggers of men who had accepted 

 favors at his hands and whom he had believed 

 his friends.. Shakespeare in his Julius Caesar 

 has made the whole story of the conspiracy 

 and murder as familiar as something that hap- 

 pened yesterday and has described, too, the 

 immediate political result of Caesar's death. 

 The succeeding years showed well -how great 

 a disaster it really was to the state, and proved 

 that only under the beneficent rule of one wise 

 man could Rome really prosper. 



Character. Any man so outstanding among 

 the men of his own time and of succeeding 

 centuries is certain to be the center of heated 

 argument, and Caesar is no exception to this 

 rule. In his case, however, the disagreement 

 has been almost entirely about his political 

 system, which to some seems a despotism of 

 the worst" type, to others a view of empire 

 remarkable for the age in which it was con- 

 ceived. Almost all historians agree in praising 

 Caesar's kindliness and generosity toward his 

 enemies; his marvelous power of mind which 

 made it possible for him to give an appar- 

 ently undivided attention to half a dozen 

 matters at the same time, and his irresistible 

 charm of personality. Much of the knowledge 

 of him which has come down to later times 

 is derived from Plutarch's Lives, in which 

 Caesar is compared with Alexander the Great; 

 but the Greek historian, according to modern 

 historic judgment, does not always do justice 

 to the most original genius Rome ever pro- 

 duced. W.L.W. 



Consult Caesar's Commentaries on the Gallic 

 War, which may be had in interlinear transla- 

 tions ; Dodge's Caesar, in "Great Captains 

 Series" ; Ferrero's Greatness and Decline of 

 Rome, vol. ii. 



Related Subjects. The following articles in 

 these volumes will throw further light upon the 

 story of Caesar or the history of the times in 

 which he lived : 



Antony, Mark Gaul, 

 Brutus, Marcus Junius Pompey 



Calendar Rome, subhead History 



Catiline Rubicon 



Cleopatra Sulla, Lucius Cornelius 



Crassus, Marcus Triumvirate 

 Licinius 



CAFFEINE, kaf'ein, or THEINE, the' in, 

 an important alkaloid whose presence in tea 

 and coffee gives them their stimulating prop- 

 erties (see ALKALOID). Caffeine is an odorless, 

 slightly-bitter solid which crystallizes in slen- 

 der, silk-like needles. In coffee it occurs in 



