BOOK I [ TUE 'iVI^DOM OP JUT.IUS C.f^AIL 6»% 



tf king, autl some were set on to Siilute him with that title 

 our, he ])assefl by. Caesar, however, finding the cry weak and 

 poor, put it off thus in a kind of jest, as if they had mis- 

 taken his surname : " Non rex sum, sed Caesar/' ^ I am not 

 king, but Csesar,* an expression, the pregnancy of wnich it 

 is dilficult to exhaust ; for first, it was a refustil of the name, 

 though not serious ; again, it disphiyed infinite confidence 

 and magnanimity in presuming Caesar to be the greater 

 title, a j)resumption which posterity has fully confirmed. 

 But chiefly the ex})ression is to be admired as betraying a 

 great incentive to his designs, as if the state strove with him 

 for a mere name, with Avhich even mean families were in- 

 vested. For Ivex was a surname v/ith the Romans, as well 

 as King is with us. The last saying I shall mention, refers 

 to Metellus : as soon as Caesar had seized Rome, he made 

 straightway to the oerarium to seize the money of the state ; 

 but Metellus being tribune, forestalled his purpose, and denied 

 him entrance : whereupon Caesar threatened, if he did not 

 desist, to lay him dead on the spot. But presently checking 

 himself, added, '• Adolescens, durius est mihi hoc dicere quani 

 facere ;" Young man, it is harder for me to say this than to 

 do it.^ A sentence compounded of the greatest terror and 

 clemency tha* ^culd proceed out of the mouth of man. But 

 to conclude- »vjth Caesar. It is evident he was quite aware 

 of his prcMcicnoy in this respect, from his scoffing at the idea 

 of the >-'^^ange resolution of Sylla, which some one expressed 

 about his resignation of th<^ dictatorship : "Sylla," said Ciesar, 

 "was unlettered, and therefore knew not how to dictate." "^ 



A- id here we should cease descanting on the concurrence 

 of military vh-tue with learning, as no example could come 

 with any grace after Alexander and Caesar, were it not for 

 an extraordinary case touchir;; Xenophon, which raised that 

 philosopher from the depths oi scorn to the highest pinnacle 

 of admiration. In his youth, without either command or 

 experience, that philosopher ijllowed the expedition of 



» Suet. Life Jul. Cses. 79. _ _ 



* The point of this expression arises from the absence of the article in 

 the Latin tongue, which made rex, a king, exactly convertible with llie 

 title ct" those families who bore Rex for their surname. With u?, also, 

 there are many individuals who bear the uanie of King, and among the 

 I'lench the name Koi i^ not uncommon, 4^, 



J- Plutarch; cf. (Jic, ad Att. x. 8. ? guet. Life, Uxvii, 



2 f 



