Master of the Horse, and to the
end of his 5th consulship, shared with Marcus Antonius. (B.C. 44 = a.u.
710).

(_BOOK 44, BOISSEVAIN_.)

[B.C. 44 (_a.u._ 710)]

[-1-] This Caesar did as a preliminary step to making a campaign against
the Parthians, but a baleful frenzy which fell upon certain men through
jealousy of his onward progress and hatred of his being esteemed above
others caused the death of the leader by unlawful means, while it added
a new name to the annals of infamy; it scattered decrees to the winds
and brought upon the Romans seditions again and civil wars after a state
of harmony. They declared that they had proved themselves both
destroyers of Caesar and liberators of the people, but in fact their plot
against him was one of fiendish malice, and they threw the city into
disorder when at last it possessed a stable government. [-2-] Democracy
has a fair appearing name which conveys the impression of bringing equal
rights to all from equal laws, but its results are seen not to agree at
all with its title. Monarchy, on the contrary, strikes the ear
unpleasantly, but is a very excellent government to live under. It is
easier to find one single excellent man than many, and if even this
seems to some a difficult feat, it is quite inevitable that the other
proposition be acknowledged to be impossible; for the acquirement of
virtue is not a characteristic of the majority of men. And again, even
though one reprobate should obtain supreme power, yet he is preferable
to a multitude of such persons, as the history of the Greeks and
barbarians and of the Romans themselves proves. For successes have
always been greater and more in number in the case both of cities and of
individuals under kings than under popular rule, and disasters do not
happen so easily in monarchies as in ochlocracies. In cases where a
democracy has flourished anywhere, it has nevertheless reached its prime
during a short period when the people had neither size nor strength that
abuses should spring up among them from good fortune or jealousies from
ambition. For a city so large as this, ruling the finest and the
greatest part of the known world, containing men of many and diverse
natures, holding many huge fortunes, occupied with every imaginable
pursuit, enjoying every imaginable fortune, both individually and
collectively,--for such a city to practice moderation under a democracy
is impossible, and still more is it impossible for the peopl