JULIUS (LESAR. 1S5 



'He was great in everything he essayed: as a captain, a 

 statesman, a lawgiver, a jurist, an orator, a poet, a gram- 

 marian, a mathematician, and an architect.' We have only to 

 object to this eulogium that it assumes a parity of excellence 

 in points where we must suppose that there was much real 

 inequality. But nothing is stated here which Caesar did not 

 actually accomplish ; and his mind rose so high above 

 mediocrity, that, even where our evidence is imperfect, we 

 can believe some part of his genius to have been conveyed to 

 all he undertook. 



With the exception (and this a doubtful one) of Frederick 

 of Prussia, Caesar is perhaps the only great commander who 

 adds the fame of literature to that of war. Near the close of 

 his career he established a Greek and Latin library at Eome, 

 selecting Varro as his librarian. Unhappily all his writings 

 are lost to us except the Commentaries ; a fact which, re- 

 garding the author both in his own greatness and as the 

 head of a long line of sovereigns, may reasonably excite 

 surprise as well as regret. We are indeed imperfectly in- 

 formed as to the mode in which the manuscripts, forming 

 the literature of those days, passed into circulation and were 

 transferred from one generation to another ; but still it must 

 appear strange that go large a part of the writings of a man 

 like Caesar should have disappeared from the world. It is 

 related that he composed his grammatical treatise, De Ana- 

 logid, while travelling through the Alps ; and a poem called 

 Iter during a journey in Spain. The former was dedicated 

 to Cicero ; and from a fragment of it still preserved, we find 

 that Caesar first proposed the name of ablative for a case not 

 known to the Greek Grammar. Looking at other points in 

 his character, we are half inclined to believe that he wrote 

 them solely for his amusement while on the road ; and that, 

 indifferent to literary fame, he took little care to multiply 

 the copies which might secure transmission to later times. 



