at
empire would fall into Caesar's hands did he not grasp it himself. It
would have satisfied him to let things go, while the citizens called him
"Magnus," and regarded him as the man who could do a great thing if he
would, if only no rivalship had been forced upon him. Caesar did force it
on him, and then, as a matter of course, he fell. He must have
understood warfare from his youth upward, knowing well the purposes of a
Roman legion and of Roman auxiliaries. He had destroyed Sertorius in
Spain, a man certainly greater than himself, and had achieved the honor
of putting an end to the Servile war when Spartacus, the leader of the
slaves and gladiators, had already been killed. He must have appreciated
at its utmost the meaning of those words, "Cives Romanus." He was a
handsome man, with good health, patient of labor, not given to luxury,
reticent, I should say ungenerous, and with a strong touch of vanity; a
man able to express but unable to feel friendship; with none of the
highest attributes of manhood, but with all the second-rate attributes
at their best; a capable, brave man, but one certain to fall crushed
beneath the heel of such a man as Caesar, and as certain to leave such a
one as Cicero in the lurch.

It is necessary that the reader should attempt to realize to himself the
personal characteristics of Pompey, as from this time forward Cicero's
political life--and his life now became altogether political--was
governed by that of Pompey. That this was the case to a great extent is
certain--to a sad extent, I think. The two men were of the same age; but
Pompey had become a general among soldiers before Cicero had ceased to
be a pupil among advocates. As Cicero was making his way toward the
front, Pompey was already the first among Romans. He had been Consul
seven years before his proper time, and had lately, as we have seen,
been invested with extraordinary powers in that matter of putting down
the pirates. In some sort the mantle of Sulla had fallen upon him. He
was the leader of what we may call the conservative party. If, which I
doubt, the political governance of men was a matter of interest to him,
he would have had them governed by oligarchical forms. Such had been the
forms in Rome, in which, though the votes of the people were the source
of all power, the votes hardly went further than the selection of this
or that oligarch. Pompey no doubt felt the expediency of maintaining the
old order of things, in t