amous man of
the time, covered with military laurels, and regarded, though not with
perfect confidence, as the champion of the Senatorial party. Crassus, a
man of ordinary ability, was valuable to the other two on account of his
enormous wealth. These three men agreed to unite their interests and
their influence. In accordance with this arrangement Caesar obtained the
consulship, and then the command for five years, afterward extended to
ten, of the provinces of Gaul and Illyricum. It was while proconsul of
Gaul in the years 58-50 B.C. that he subjugated and organized "All
Gaul," which was far greater in extent than the country which is now
France; increased his own political and material resources; and above
all formed an army, the most highly trained and efficient the world had
yet seen, entirely faithful to himself, by means of which he was able in
the years 49-46 B.C. to defeat all his political antagonists and to gain
absolute power over the State.

He held the consulship again in 48 and 46 B.C., and was consul without a
colleague in 45 and 44 B.C., as well as dictator with authority to
remodel the Constitution. While his far-reaching plans of organization
and improvement were incomplete, and when he was about to start upon a
war against the Parthians on the eastern frontier of the empire, he was
murdered March 15th, 44 B.C., by a band of conspirators headed by Brutus
and Cassius.

For purposes of a literary judgment of Caesar we have of his own works in
complete or nearly complete form his military memoirs only. His
specifically literary works have all perished. A few sentences from his
speeches, a few of his letters, a few wise or witty sayings, an anecdote
or two scattered about in the pages of other authors, and six lines of
hexameter verse, containing a critical estimate of the dramatist
Terence, are all that remain as specimens of what is probably forever
lost to us.

[Illustration: JULIUS CAESAR.]

An enumeration of his works, so far as their titles are known, is the
best evidence of his versatility. A bit of criticism here and there
shows the estimation in which Caesar the writer and orator was held by
his countrymen and contemporaries. Besides the military memoirs and the
works spoken of above in connection with his pontificate, we may
mention, as of a semi-official character, his astronomical treatise On
the Stars (De Astris), published in connection with his reform of the
calendar, when dictator, sh