ey, the only
possible alternative, was dead; Caesar was lord of all things.
Pharsalus, the deciding battle, was fought in 48; he returned
home in 46. From the year between, in which he put the finishing
touches to his supremacy, you may count the full manvantara of
Imperial Rome: fifteen centuries until 1453 and the fall of
the Eastern Empire.

All opinion since has been divided as to the character of Caesar.
To those whose religion is democracy, he is the grand Destroyer
of Freedom; to the worshipers of the Superman, he is the chief
avatar of their god. Mr. Stobart,* who deals with him sanely,
but leaning to the favorable view, says he was "not a bad man,
for he preferred justice and mercy to tyranny and cruelty, and
had a passion for logic and order"; and adds, "he was a man
without beliefs or illusions or scruples." He began by being a
fop and ultra-extravagant; and was always, if we may believe
accounts, a libertine of the first water. He was, of course, an
epileptic. In short, there is nothing in history to give an
absolutely sure clue to his real self. But there is that passage
in Madame Blavatsky, which I have quoted before, to the effect
that he was an agent of the dark forces, and conquered Gaul for
them, to abolish the last effective Mysteries; and I think in
the light of that, his character, and a great deal of history
besides, becomes intelligible enough.--I will be remembered that
he stood at the head of the Roman religion, as Potifex Maximus.

------
* On whose book, _The Grandeur that was Rome,_ this paper also
largely leans.
------

But it was not the evil that he did that (obviously) brought
about his downfall. Caesar was fortified against Karma by the
immensity of his genius. Whom should he fear, who had conquered
Pompeius Magnus? None in the roman world could reach so high as
to his elbow;--for sheer largeness of mind, quickness and daring,
he stoood absolutely the Superman among pygmies. He knew his
aim, and could make or wait for it; and it was big and real.
Other men crowed or fumbled after petty and pinch-beck ends;
impossible rhetorical republicanisms; vain senatorial prestiges;
--or pleasure pure and simple--say rather, very complex and
impure. Let them clack, let them fumble! Caesar would do
things and get things done. He wore the whole armor of his
greatness, and could see no chink or joint in it through which a
hostile dagger might pierce. Even his military victories we