34 SOLDIERS AND SAILORS partisans (H.C. 63). Clearly seeing the necessity for personal government, at a time when his own services and distinctions were not such as to entitle him to as- pire to it, Caesar did his best to secure it for Pompey, then far the foremost man in Rome, by strenuously supporting measures which virtually placed the empire at his absoluu- disposal for an indefinite period. A fairly good soldier, but a most vain, unreliable, and incompetent statesman, Pompey after five years let these powers slip through his hands. Ca>sar was by this time thirty-eight (B.C. 62). He had steadily risen in influ- ence and official rank ; and it was, no doubt, now that he determined to take the great task into his own hands. He was the recognized chief of the popu- lar party, which aimed at concentrating Republican government in the hands of a single person, as the only means of bridling the oligarchy. But this was not to be accomplished merely by popular votes, as many a democratic leader had found to his cost. Caesar needed an army and a military reputation, and with rare patience he set himself to acquire both. By a coalition with Pompey now obliged to treat him as an equal he obtained the consulship (B.C. 59), which on its expiration entitled him to a great military command. Roman generals had of late preferred to extend their conquests eastward, and to win comparatively easy and lucrative triumphs in Asia, over people who had possessed for long ages a type of civilization suited to them, and who therefore could never thoroughly assimilate Western manners and institutions. All this time Gaul, lying at the gates of Italy, was neglected (only the district between "the Cevennes and the Alps having been reduced), because the people were more warlike, and less booty was to be gained. Yet, till that conquest should be effected, Rome's work of civilizing the world was standing still ; nay, it was always menaced by northern invasions. This field of action, then, Caesar marked out for himself, in which he could prepare the means for assuming power at home, and at the same time render the highest service to his country and human- ity. His ardent spirit, his incredible energy in all circumstances of his life, astonished his contemporaries. Time pressed, for he was no longer young. While he was absent from Rome, what revolutions might not mar his plans ! Yet, ten continuous years did he devote to this great task, which, if he had achieved nothing else, would make his name one of the greatest in history. In those ten years he conquered Gaul, from the Pyrenees to the Rhine and the British Channel ; conquered her so thoroughly, and treated her so sensibly, that when the fierce struggle was over, she frankly and even proudly accepted her new position. The culture, the institutions, even the language of the victors, were eagerly adopted. The grandsons of the men who had fought so gallantly against Caesar, won full citizenship, took their seats in the Senate, and commanded Roman armies. These ten years decided the future of the West, and therefore of Humanity It is not merely the central position and natural advantages of France, nor yet the admirable qualities of her people, which have made her throughout mediaeval and modern history, the foremost of European states. It is even more the result
