176 EOMAN HISTOKY : 



From Africa Caesar returned to Rome, and celebrated there 

 a quadruple triumph of greater magnificence than any that 

 had gone before, but with all the strange and ferocious ex- 

 hibitions belonging to this festival. It was a needful conces- 

 sion to national usage ; whether made willingly or not, we 

 have no means of affirming. Much discretion was required 

 in the selection of the subjects for triumph ; since civil wars 

 had been so closely interwoven with foreign, that his greatest 

 exploits and successes were studiously kept out of sight. 

 And scarcely indeed were these shows ended, when he was 

 again summoned to the field to put down the large insurrec- 

 tionary army which the sons of Pompey had assembled in 

 Spain. In twenty-seven days celeri festinatione, as his 

 historian well says he was with his forces in Andalusia. 

 The bloody but decisive day of Munda, where 30,000 soldiers 

 were left on the field, and the victor himself exposed to 

 imminent personal danger, closed this last formidable anta- 

 gonism and the military life of Caesar. It is a point of time 

 when even those who most deprecate war in all its forms 

 may look back with astonishment, if not with admiration, at 

 the wonderful career of victory so terminated. Whether we 

 consider the vast countries and distances thus traversed in 

 Europe, Africa, and Asia, the battles gained, or the con- 

 quests effected, we cannot but feel that Cicero has well applied 

 the term of rspas to express the activity, the vigilance, the 

 sagacious daring of Julius Caesar. He is indeed a prodigy 

 in the history of manknd. 



After his final campaign he returned to Italy : this also 

 was for the last time. Though absent for many months, the 

 awe inspired by his name had protected the city against all 

 turbulance or innovation ; and he now came back, single and 

 supreme, the arbiter of the future destiny of Rome and the 

 known world. Already three times declared Dictator, he 

 was now named such for life. The consulship was given to 



