166 
PLIKY's ^TATUEAL HISTOEr. 
[Book YIL 
CHAP. 25. (25.) VIGOUE OP MIND. 
The most remarkable instance, I think, of vigour of mind in 
any man ever born, was that of Caesar, the Dictator. I am not 
at present alluding to his valour and courage, nor yet his ex- 
alted genius, which was capable of embracing everything under 
the face of heaven, but I am speaking of that innate vigour 
of mind, which was so peculiar to him, and that promptness 
which seemed to act like a flash of lightning. We find it stated 
that he was able to write or read, and, at the same time, to 
dictate and listen. He could dictate to his secretaries four 
letters at once, and those on the most important business ; and, 
indeed, if he was busy about nothing else, as many as seven. 
He fought as many as fifty pitched battles, being the only com- 
mander who exceeded M. Marcellus,^^ in this respect, he having 
fought only thirty-nine.^ In addition, too, to the victories 
gained by him in the civil wars, one million one hundred and 
ninety-two thousand men were slain by him in his battles. 
Eor my own part, however, I am not going to set it down as a 
subject for high renown, what was really an outrage committed 
upon mankind, even though he may have been acting under 
the strong influence of necessity ; and, indeed, he himself 
confesses as much, in his omission to state the number of persons 
who perished by the sword in the civil wars. 
CHAP. 26. CLEMENCY AND GEEATNESS OP MIND. 
With much more justice we may award credit to Pompeius 
Magnus, for having taken from the pirates no less than eight 
hundred and forty- six vessels : though at the same time, over 
and above the great qualities previously mentioned, we must 
with equal justice give Caesar the peculiar credit of a remark- 
The conqueror of Syracuse, and live times consul at Rome. He was 
born B.C. 268, and was slain in an engagement with Hannibal, e.g. 208, 
in the vicinity of Venusia. 
^ Ajasson remarks concerning tbe number of battles in which Caesar is 
said to have been engaged, that it has probably been much exceeded by 
some of the great warriors of later times. He says that an individual, 
" who was raised over our heads and over all Europe, and so reigned much 
too long," was personally engaged in nearly 300 battles. — B. 
Who infested the coasts of Cilicia, and whom he dislodged from their 
strongholds, and almost utterly extirpated. 
