Page:Plutarch's Lives (Clough, v.4, 1865).djvu/279

CLESAR. 271 do n't you then, out of the same fear, keep at home ? " To which Considius replied, that age was his guard against fear, and that the small remains of his life were not worth much caution. But the most disgraceful thing that was done in Cesar's consulship, was his assisting to gain the tribuneship for the same Clodius who had made the attempt upon his wife's chastity, and intruded upon the secret vigils. He was elected on purpose to effect Cicero's downfall ; nor did Caasar leave the city to join his army, till they two had overpowered Cicero, and driven him out of Italy. Thus far have we followed Caesar's actions before the wars of Gaul. After this, he seems to begin his course afresh, and to enter upon a new life and scene of action. And the period of those wars which he now fought, and those many expeditions in which he subdued Gaul, showed him to be a soldier and general not in the least inferior to any of the greatest and most admired commanders who had ever appeared at the head of armies. For if we com- pare him with the Fabii, the Metelli, the Scipios, and with those who were his contemporaries, or not long before him, Sylla, Marius, the two Luculli, or even Pompey him- self, whose glory, it may be said, went up at that time to heaven for every excellence in war, we shall find Ca?sar's actions to have surpassed them all. One he may be held to have outdone in consideration of the difficulty of the country in which he fought, another in the extent of territory which he conquered ; some, in the number and strength of the enemies whom he de- feated ; one man, because of the wildness and perfidi- ousness of the tribes whose good-will he conciliated, another in his humanity and clemency to those he over- powered ; others, again in his gifts and kindnesses to his soldiers ; all alike in the number of the battles which he fought and the enemies whom he killed. For he had not