172 KOMAN HISTORY: 



or urgency of the procedure, it was a proof of present dis- 

 ability ; disheartening to his adherents and a source of dis- 

 sension to the party. Though a vast body of senators clung 

 to his flying camp, it was the Senate of Eome no longer, and 

 brought neither counsel nor strength to his cause. 



At this time, when the Duumvirate resolved itself into 

 a personal contest between the two leaders, we may believe 

 that the views of Caesar had become more exactly denned ; and 

 that he saw as the needful issue, the mastery of one or the 

 other over the whole fortunes of the Republic. Now, if not 

 before, we may suppose him to have uttered the lines which 

 Cicero tells us were often on his lips, from the Phoenissae of 

 Euripides, that 'if ever it be fitting to commit wrong, the 

 noblest motive for this is the gain of sovereign power.' 

 Hastening forwards with the tide of events, we find them 

 all still marked with the character of the man, ever more 

 energetic and capable as the difficulties were greater. While 

 Pompey was loitering with his senators and troops in Epirus, 

 Caesar pushed across the Alps and Pyrenees into Spain ; 

 subdued in an arduous and critical campaign of forty days the 

 large legionary army opposed to him on the Ebro; over- 

 came the remaining Pompeian forces on the Guadalquivir ; 

 and, when hardly yet known to be on the shores of the 

 Atlantic at Cadiz, suddenly appeared at Marseilles to decide 

 the surrender of that city, long vainly besieged by his sub- 

 alterns. To estimate rightly what such marches and victories 

 were, it is needful to revert to the aspect of these countries 

 at the time, to the state of the mountain roads, to the 

 dangerous and scanty means of navigation on the seas. When 

 we are told that Caesar himself often crossed rivers by 

 swimming on inflated skins, overtaking his own couriers in 

 the speed of his course, we can form some idea of the diffi- 

 culties encountered, and of the personal energy by which 

 they were overcome. 



