166 KOMAN HISTOKY : 



long proconsulship of nine years, splendidly illustrate the 

 genius and resources of the man ; and throw, moreover, a 

 curious light on the still remaining institutions of the Re- 

 public. As proconsul, and with provinces and legions al- 

 lotted to him, the law forbad his going out of the limits 

 thus assigned. The City was interdicted to him ; and for this 

 long period of time though forty years of age when this 

 portion of his career began he never entered the place in 

 which the interests of the world were concentered. Yet in 

 no other way could his ambition have been better served. 

 The active part of each year was passed with his legions in 

 marches and victories, and in the acquisition of spoils, with 

 which to purchase further power. Leaving his army under 

 his lieutenants at the end of the campaign, to be recruited 

 and refreshed, he came himself each winter to the frontier 

 of his province nearest to Rome, where he was met by his 

 numerous friends and partisans from the city, animated by 

 his conquests and increasing fame. His military court there 

 had more validity in it than the habitual presence of his rival 

 in the heart of Rome. It now became a contest between 

 living success on the one side, and the memory of past 

 achievements on the other a contest which the world will 

 ever decide in the same way : 



To have done is to hang 

 Quite out of fashion, like a rusty mail 

 In monumental mockery. 



The resistance of the Grauls might possibly have been pro- 

 longed, or more successful, had they been familiar with the 

 methods of guerilla warfare. But either from temperament 

 or national custom, they aggregated themselves into masses 

 wholly incapable of withstanding the organised valour of the 

 invaders. The history of the tenth legion is familiar to 

 every reader of these stirring campaigns. Caesar was well 



