Part 3

Cæsar, however, was not destined even to set out for Parthia. On March 15 (44 B. C.), the Senate met to take the last measures preparatory to his departure. The place of session was the Senate House which Pompey had built near his theater. Scarcely had Cæsar entered and taken his seat when a throng of about sixty senators gathered round him, pretending to greet him and to offer a petition. They were conspirators who had engaged in a plot for his assassination, through no especial love for the Republic, but for various personal reasons. Many had gained office and wealth under his patronage; but in their greed for greater wealth and political glory they lost all sense of gratitude. The best among them was Marcus Brutus, in his own social circle a philosopher and an idealist, but in business a hard, relentless usurer. Caius Cassius, the brain of the conspiracy, was a plunderer of the provinces and a robber of temples, whom envy drove into the plot. By such men was Cæsar slain. It was a crime perpetrated upon the civilized world, which had to endure thirteen more years of desolating civil war (44-31 B. C.), before Octavius, the young heir to Cæsar, could gain the mastery and bring the empire to peace. This young man, known to history as Augustus, though less brilliant than his granduncle, possessed a far greater degree of practical wisdom. It was he, rather than Cæsar, who gave the Roman world an organization under which it was to enjoy more than two centuries of prosperity and happiness. Viewed in this light, the wisest act of the great Cæsar was the choice of this youth of delicately modeled features and frail body as his son and successor.

* * * * *

THE PASSING OF CÆSAR--“On March 15 (the Ides of March), 44 B. C., Cæsar entered the Senate Chamber and took his seat. His presence awed men, in spite of themselves, and the conspirators had determined to act at once, lest they should lose courage to act at all. He was familiar and easy of access. They gathered round him. He knew them all. There was not one from whom he had not a right to expect some sort of gratitude, and the movement suggested no suspicion. One had a story to tell him; another some favor to ask. Tullius Cimber, whom he had just made governor of Bithynia, then came close to him with some request which he was unwilling to grant. Cimber caught his gown, as if in entreaty, and dragged it from his shoulders. Cassius, who was standing behind, stabbed him in the throat. He started up with a cry, and caught Cassius’s arm. Another poinard entered his breast, giving a mortal wound. He looked round, and seeing not one friendly face, but only a ring of daggers pointing at him, he drew his gown over his head, gathered the folds about him that he might fall decently, and sank down without uttering another word. Cicero was present. Brutus, waving his dagger, shouted to Cicero, congratulating him that liberty was restored. The Senate rose with shrieks and confusion, and rushed into the Forum. The crowd outside caught the words that Cæsar was dead and scattered to their houses. The murderers, some of them bleeding from wounds which they had given one another in their eagerness, followed, crying that the tyrant was dead, and that Rome was free.”--_James Anthony Froude._

_SUPPLEMENTARY READING_: JULIUS CÆSAR, by G. Ferrero; JULIUS CÆSAR, a sketch, by J. A. Froude; JULIUS CÆSAR, by W. W. Fowler (Heroes of the Nations Series); JULIUS CÆSAR, by J. Abbott; LIFE OF CÆSAR, in Plutarch’s Lives.

⁂ Information concerning these books may be had on application to the Editor of The Mentor.

_THE CONQUERORS_

It is Human Desire that makes world history--desire for conquest, possession, and control. The Conqueror of the World must have his will. He treads the peoples of the earth under his feet, and spreads ruin in his path. He knows no social distinctions--this Re-molder of Humanity. The habitations of poor and rich alike are demolished, and the treasured possessions of city and town desecrated. Monuments of revered memory are razed to the ground, and new monuments to the Conqueror are raised to the sky. Nations are subjugated; governments are revised; territory is re-assigned; new laws are made. The people bow under the yoke; the Conqueror is enthroned with pomp and ceremony, and hailed as Master of the World.

And then--something happens that saves the world for the people. Some call it the “Hand of Fate”; those that live in the faith call it the “Will of God.” But history tells us that final defeat awaits the man that aspires to be Conqueror of the World.

* * * * *

Tamerlane, the Tartar tyrant, called “the Scourge of God,” swept the hordes of Asia before him in world conquest. He died suddenly while preparing to invade China. Alexander of Macedon, called “the Great,” made himself master of the world of his day. He forestalled Fate by dissipating his young life away, and died broken-hearted, sighing for more worlds to conquer. Hannibal, the Carthaginian, carried the spirit of conquest across the Mediterranean to Spain, Italy, and over the Alps. He threatened Rome itself, and aspired to the overlordship of land and sea. Finally, defeated by Scipio Africanus, he was exiled to Syria, where, dishonored and deserted, he committed suicide. Julius Cæsar conquered all Gaul, and carried the standards of Rome to far-off Britain. The name of Cæsar became synonymous with conquest, so that it has been borne by successive emperors for centuries, and is, even in this day, the title of Imperialism. But Cæsar crossed the Rubicon, “and Rome was free no more.” In the very fullness of his power he was assassinated by his own senators, his friend Brutus among them.

“As he was ambitious,” said Brutus, “I slew him. There is joy for his fortune; honor for his valor; and _death_ for his ambition.”

Napoleon Bonaparte gained leadership in France at a critical time, reconstructed her shattered institutions, and built up a military power that dominated all Europe. His ambition contemplated a personal supremacy of the Continent, with vassal nations paying tribute to his sovereignty. Beyond the bounds of Europe he carried conquest into Egypt, riding his charger to the foot of the Pyramids. But his over-weening ambition tempted him too far. As the crossing of the Rubicon sealed the fate of Cæsar, the crossing of the Niemen marked the beginning of Napoleon’s downfall. With the Grand Army of more than half a million men, he invaded Russia, penetrating as far as Moscow. In a few months, with a pitiful, broken and ragged remnant of his forces, he recrossed the Niemen, minus glory and minus the trophies of war. Soon after, Napoleon met his Waterloo, and ended his days in lonely brooding, like an eagle chained to a rock, on the desolate island of St. Helena.

* * * * *

_Sic transit gloria mundi_--“so passes away the glory of the world”; so ends the career of the Conqueror.

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1 Beautiful Children in Art, by Kobbé. 2 Makers of American Poetry, by Mable. 3 Washington the Capital, by Elmendorf. 4 Beautiful Women in Art, by Willing. 5 Romantic Ireland, by Elmendorf. 6 Masters of Music, by Henderson. 7 Natural Wonders of America, by Elmendorf. 8 Pictures We Love to Live With, by Huneker. 9 The Conquest of the Peaks, by Fay. 10 Scotland, the Land of Song and Scenery, by Elmendorf. 11 Cherubs in Art, by Kobbé. 12 Statues with a Story, by Lorado Taft. 13 The Discoverers, by Albert Bushnell Hart. 14 London, by Elmendorf. 15 The Story of Panama, by Bonsal. 16 American Birds of Beauty, by E. H. Forbush. 17 Dutch Masterpieces, by Van Dyke. 18 Paris, the Incomparable, by Elmendorf. 19 Flowers of Decoration, by H. S. 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