great Dictator, by no single trait could he more effectually have
fulfilled that purpose, nor in fewer words, than by this expressive
passage, "_Gaudensque viam fecisse ruina_." Such a trait would be almost
extravagant applied even to Marius, who (though in many respects a perfect
model of Roman grandeur, massy, columnar, imperturbable, and more perhaps
than any one man recorded in history capable of justifying the bold
illustration of that character in Horace, "_Si fractus illabatur orbis,
impavidum ferient ruinae_") had, however, a ferocity in his character, and
a touch of the devil in him, very rarely united with the same tranquil
intrepidity. But for Caesar, the all-accomplished statesman, the splendid
orator, the man of elegant habits and polished taste, the patron of the
fine arts in a degree transcending all example of his own or the previous
age, and as a man of general literature so much beyond his contemporaries,
except Cicero, that he looked down even upon the brilliant Sylla as an
illiterate person,--to class such a man with the race of furious
destroyers exulting in the desolations they spread, is to err not by an
individual trait, but by the whole genus. The Attilas and the Tamerlanes,
who rejoice in avowing themselves the scourges of God, and the special
instruments of his wrath, have no one feature of affinity to the polished
and humane Caesar, and would as little have comprehended his character, as
he could have respected theirs. Even Cato, the unworthy hero of Lucan,
might have suggested to him a little more truth in this instance, by a
celebrated remark which he made on the characteristic distinction of
Caesar, in comparison with other revolutionary disturbers; for, whereas
others had attempted the overthrow of the state in a continued paroxysm of
fury, and in a state of mind resembling the lunacy of intoxication, that
Caesar, on the contrary, among that whole class of civil disturbers, was
the only one who had come to the task in a temper of sobriety and
moderation, (_unum accessisse sobrium ad rempublicam delendam_.)