Caesar, Julius; Rome -- History -- Republic, 265-30 B.C.
[Sidenote: Cornelia.]
[Sidenote: The funeral pile.]
[Sidenote: Pompey's ashes sent to Cornelia.]
Of course, all was now excitement and confusion. As soon as the deed was
done, the perpetrators of it retired from the scene, taking the head of
their unhappy victim with them, to offer to Caesar as proof that his
enemy was really no more. The officers who remained in the fleet which
had brought Pompey to the coast made all haste to sail away, bearing the
wretched Cornelia with them, utterly distracted with grief and despair,
while Philip and his fellow-servant remained upon the beach, standing
bewildered and stupefied over the headless body of their beloved master.
Crowds of spectators came in succession to look upon the hideous
spectacle a moment in silence, and then to turn, shocked and repelled,
away. At length, when the first impulse of excitement had in some
measure spent its force, Philip and his comrades so far recovered their
composure as to begin to turn their thoughts to the only consolation
that was now left to them, that of performing the solemn duties of
sepulture. They found the wreck of a fishing boat upon the strand, from
which they obtained wood enough for a rude funeral pile. They burned
what remained of the mutilated body, and, gathering up the ashes, they
put them in an urn and sent them to Cornelia, who afterward buried them
at Alba with many bitter tears.
[Illustration: Death of Pompey]
CHAPTER IX.
CAESAR IN EGYPT.
[Sidenote: Caesar after the battle of Pharsalia.]
Caesar surveyed the field of battle after the victory of Pharsalia, not
with the feelings of exultation which might have been expected in a
victorious general, but with compassion and sorrow for the fallen
soldiers whose dead bodies covered the ground. After gazing upon the
scene sadly and in silence for a time, he said, "They would have it so,"
and thus dismissed from his mind all sense of his own responsibility for
the consequences which had ensued.
[Sidenote: His clemency.]
[Sidenote: Caesar pursues Pompey.]
He treated the immense body of prisoners which had fallen into his hands
with great clemency, partly from the natural impulses of his
disposition, which were always generous and noble, and partly from
policy, that he might conciliate them all, officers and soldiers, to
acquiescence in his future rule. He then sent back a large portion of
his force to Italy, and, taking a body of cavalry from the rest, in
order that he might advance with the utmost possible rapidity, he set
off through Thessaly and Macedon in pursuit of his fugitive foe.
[Sidenote: Treasures of the Temple of Diana.]
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