of the festival of Bacchus, on which day it is said that Pompeius Magnus also went out to battle; the interval was four years.  The younger of the sons[575] of Pompeius escaped, but after a few days Didius[576] brought the head of the elder.  This was the last war that Caesar was engaged in; but the triumph[577] that was celebrated for this victory vexed the Romans more than anything else.  For this was no victory over foreign leaders nor yet over barbarian kings, but Caesar had destroyed the children of the bravest of the Romans, who had been unfortunate, and had completely ruined his family, and it was not seemly to celebrate a triumph over the calamities of his country, exulting in these things, for which the only apology both before gods and men was that they had been done of necessity; and that too when he had never before sent either messenger or public letters to announce a victory gained in the civil wars, but had from motives of delicacy rejected all glory on that account.

LVII.  However, the Romans, gave way before the fortune of the man and received the bit, and considering the monarchy to be a respite from the civil wars and miseries they appointed him dictator[578] for life.  This was confessedly a tyranny, for the monarchy received in addition to its irresponsibility the character of permanency; and when Cicero[579] in the Senate had proposed the highest honours[580] to him, which though great were still such as were befitting a human being, others by adding still further honours and vying with one another made Caesar odious and an object of dislike even to those who were of the most moderate temper, by reason of the extravagant and unusual character of what was decreed; and it is supposed that those who hated Caesar cooperated in these measures no less than those who were his flatterers, that they might have as many pretexts as possible against him and might be considered to make their attempt upon him with the best ground of complaint.  For in all other respects, after the close of the civil wars, he showed himself blameless; and it was not without good reason that the Romans voted a temple to Clemency to commemorate his moderate measures.  For he pardoned many of those who had fought against him, and to some he even gave offices and honours, as to Brutus and Cassius, both of whom were Praetors.  He also did not allow the statues of Pompeius to remain thrown down, but he set them up again, on which Cicero said that by erecting the statues of Pompeius, Caesar had firmly fixed his own.  When his friends urged him to have guards and many offered their services for this purpose, he would not consent, and he said, that it was better to die at once than to be always expecting death.  But for the purpose of surrounding himself with the affection of the Romans as the noblest and also the securest protection, he again courted the people with banquets and distribution of corn, and the soldiers with the foundation of colonies, of which the most conspicuous were Carthage[581] and Corinth, to both of which it happened that their former capture and their present restoration occurred at once and at the same time.