Relief came when Julius Cæsar crushed Pompey at Pharsalus in B. C. 48. There was fighting here and there for two years more, but it was of little consequence. Pharsalus made Cæsar the monarch of Rome. He lived barely four years after his victory; for the daggers of the conspirators found his heart on the 15th of March, 44 B. C.; yet by a series of masterly administrative and legislative acts he laid in great broad lines the foundation of the new empire and set in motion the healthy forces that were needed for the regeneration of Rome and Italy. His work is Titanic both in conception and execution. Seldom has such a great man executed such a mighty task. But his murder loosed all the old fiends again, and they worked wilder woe than ever. For now the whole gigantic empire was drawn into the whirlpool, and the provinces were only a little less miserable than Italy. During Cæsar’s own struggle his mighty genius and his magnanimity had thrown a glory upon the murky clouds of the storm; but now that the sun was set, black darkness settled over the unhappy empire.[159] There was a pause in the strife, when, in B. C. 40, a treaty was drawn up between Octavian and Antony at Brundisium and confirmed by the marriage of Antony to the sister of Octavian. Men hoped that the end had come at last and that the world would enjoy a lasting peace. It was during this bright moment that Virgil, who later was to write the _Aeneid_, and so earn for himself a very great name in European literature, composed a short poem, which finds a place among his Pastorals, and is named _Pollio_. Here is a translation of lines four to twenty-five, which will be found quite sufficient to bring the main ideas of the poem before us:— “The last epoch of the Sybil’s prophecy has come at length; the great series of the ages is being born anew; at length the virgin, Justice, is returning, returning too the reign of Saturn; at length a new race of men is being sent down from heaven high. Do thou, Lucina, but smile thy chaste smile upon a boy with whose coming at last ceases the iron race and the golden springs up throughout the world; do so, Lucina: it is thine own Apollo that now reigns. It is in thy consulship, Pollio, that this glorious age will come in, and the months of the great year will begin their march. Under thy leadership all traces that remain of Roman crime in civil strife shall pass away, and passing, free the lands from constant fear. “He shall receive the life of the gods, and shall behold gods and heroes mingling together; and himself shall be beheld by them; and with his father’s virtues he shall rule the world at peace.