Caesar, Julius; Rome -- History -- Republic, 265-30 B.C.
But he could not yet be contented to establish himself quietly at Rome.
There was a large force organized against him in Africa under Cato, a
stern and indomitable man, who had long been an enemy to Caesar, and who
now considered him as a usurper and an enemy of the republic, and was
determined to resist him to the last extremity. There was also a large
force assembled in Spain under the command of two sons of Pompey, in
whose case the ordinary political hostility of contending partisans was
rendered doubly intense and bitter by their desire to avenge their
father's cruel fate. Caesar determined first to go to Africa, and then,
after disposing of Cato's resistance, to cross the Mediterranean
into Spain.
[Sidenote: Complaints of the soldiers.]
Before he could set out, however, on these expeditions, he was involved
in very serious difficulties for a time, on account of a great
discontent which prevailed in his army, and which ended at last in open
mutiny. The soldiers complained that they had not received the rewards
and honors which Caesar had promised them. Some claimed offices, others
money others lands, which, as they maintained, they had been led to
expect would be conferred upon them at the end of the campaign. The fact
undoubtedly was, that, elated with their success, and intoxicated with
the spectacle of the boundless influence and power which their general
so obviously wielded at Rome, they formed expectations and hopes for
themselves altogether too wild and unreasonable to be realized by
soldiers; for soldiers, however much they may be flattered by their
generals in going into battle, or praised in the mass in official
dispatches, are after all but slaves, and slaves, too, of the very
humblest caste and character.
[Sidenote: The mutiny.]
[Sidenote: The army marches to Rome.]
The famous tenth legion, Cesar's favorite corps, took the most active
part in fomenting these discontents, as might naturally have been
expected, since the attentions and the praises which he had bestowed
upon them, though at first they tended to awaken their ambition, and to
inspire them with redoubled ardor and courage, ended, as such favoritism
always does, in making them vain, self-important, and unreasonable. Led
on thus by the tenth legion, the whole army mutinied. They broke up the
camp where they had been stationed at some distance beyond the walls of
Rome, and marched toward the city. Soldiers in a mutiny, even though
headed by their subaltern officers, are very little under command; and
these Roman troops, feeling released from their usual restraints,
committed various excesses on the way, terrifying the inhabitants and
spreading universal alarm. The people of the city were thrown into utter
consternation at the approach of the vast horde, which was coming like a
terrible avalanche to descend upon them.
[Sidenote: Plan of the soldiers.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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