182 KOMAN HISTORY: 



This act of blood closes the narrative now before us ; 

 our author's final chapter being occupied by a delineation of 

 the character of Julius, and of the condition of Eome at the 

 time of his death. The former subject has been variously 

 handled, according to the complexion of the writer's mind, 

 or that desire of framing a theory of motives and events 

 which is so often observable in those who undertake to 

 record them. We have no desire to shelter moral failings, 

 or to palliate the evils arising from ambition and war ; yet 

 we must express our belief that Dr. Arnold has coloured his 

 Csesar too darkly. Mr. Merivale is less austere; and a 

 passage at the beginning of the third chapter, shows his 

 comprehension of those high qualities which designate to all 

 posterity this greatest of Eomans. We have, however, to 

 complain that his portraiture is somewhat broken and un- 

 connected, giving the feeling of a certain want of congruity ; 

 and occasionally it would seem that even a line of Lucan, or an 

 anecdote of Suetonius, has sufficed to produce a change of 

 opinion. In one place, for instance, he speaks of the f perfect 

 simplicity of Caesar's character ; ' in another, of f his gratui- 

 tous indulgence to his passion for personal display ; ' - 

 qualities hardly compatible in themselves, even with every 

 allowance for those disparities of which we have elsewhere 

 spoken. That the error lies in the latter passage we enter- 

 tain no doubt. The mind of Caesar had, we believe, very 

 much more of singleness and consistency than is often met 

 with in history ; but the events and conditions of his career 

 were so various and extraordinary, that it would require 

 much critical research and discrimination to present a picture 

 of him which might satisfy all the requirements of truth. 

 On the whole we may say, without attempting such an 

 analysis, that while his public course during the last sixteen 

 years of his life was one of almost constant and bloody 

 warfare, his natural temperament seems to have been hu- 



