nd centurion has received immortality at his hands as the guerdon of
valor. He describes a victory of Labienus with as much satisfaction as
if it had been his own, and praises another lieutenant for his prudent
self-restraint when tempted by a prospect of success. And he tells with
hearty admiration of the devoted Gauls who sacrificed their lives one
after another in a post of danger at Avaricum. Even in the Civil War no
officers deserted him except Labienus and two Gaulish chiefs.

It was difficult to deceive him. His analysis of other men's motives is
as merciless as it is passionless. He makes us disapprove the course of
his antagonists with the same moderate but convincing statement with
which he recommends his own. Few men can have had as few illusions as
he. One would scarcely care to possess such an insight into the hearts
of others. He seems to feel little warmth of indignation, and never
indulges in invective. But woe to those who stood in the way of the
accomplishment of his objects. Dreadful was the punishment of those who
revolted after making peace. Still, even his vengeance seems dictated by
policy rather than by passion. He is charged with awful cruelty because
he slew a million men and sold another million into slavery. But he did
not enjoy human suffering. These were simply necessary incidents in the
execution of his plans. It is hard to see how European civilization
could have proceeded without the conquest of Gaul, and it is surely
better to make a conquest complete, rapid, overpowering, that the work
may have to be done but once.

It is hard not to judge men by the standards of our own age. The
ancients rarely felt an international humanity, and in his own time
"Caesar's clemency" was proverbial. As he was always careful not to waste
in useless fighting the lives of his soldiers, so he was always true to
his own precept, "Spare the citizens." The way in which he repeatedly
forgave his enemies when they were in his power was an example to many a
Christian conqueror. The best of his antagonists showed themselves
bloodthirsty in word or act; and most of them, not excepting Cicero,
were basely ungrateful for his forbearance. His treatment of Cicero was
certainly most handsome--our knowledge of it is derived mainly from
Cicero's letters. Perhaps this magnanimity was dashed with a tinge of
kindly contempt for his fellow-citizens; but whatever its motives, it
was certainly wise and benign at the beginning o