siderable degree of public favor. But when Marius died in 86 B.C. Sulla was made dictator, and Cæsar withdrew from the city to gain his first military experience in Asia.

The Triumvirate. He returned in 73 B.C. to find that during his absence he had been elected pontifex, or priest of the Roman religion, an office mainly political in its bearing. Pompey and Crassus had taken the lead in Rome after the death of Sulla, and were endeavoring to repeal his laws in favor of the aristocracy, and to restore once more the power of the people. Meanwhile Cæsar was rising rapidly in public favor by reason of his public benefactions, becoming successively military tribune, quæstor, ædile, or supervisor of the public games, and pontifex maximus, or high priest of the Roman faith. Then as proprætor he was sent to Spain, where he laid the basis of his military fame. When Pompey returned to Rome after his victories over Mithridates in the East he joined with Cæsar and Crassus to form the so-called First Triumvirate (60 B.C.). Cæsar was thereupon elected consul, and soon after obtained the government of Cisalpine Gaul.

Campaigns in Gaul. It was at this time that Cæsar began the wonderful series of conquests which are recorded in his Commentaries. In eight years he had conquered all of northern and western Europe, and returned to Rome to claim the consulship to which he had been elected, and to put the government of this great territory upon a permanent basis. Meanwhile Crassus had been killed in battle in Parthia, and Pompey had been appointed by the Senate sole consul in Rome. But Cæsar's Gallic victories had made him more popular than ever; Pompey's great fame as a general had been eclipsed; and jealousy inevitably arose between

the two leaders. The Senate, still nominally at the head of the government, sided with Pompey and ordered Cæsar to give up the command of his army upon pain of being declared a public enemy.

Civil War. But the ambitious and successful young warrior was not to be so easily put down. In 49, with a single legion of his army, he crossed the Rubicon stream which divided his province of Cisalpine Gaul from Italy, thus beginning a civil war upon Pompey. Within three months, without fighting a single pitched battle, he made himself master of Rome. Cæsar thereupon defeated Pompey's forces in Spain and advanced upon his rival in Thessaly, where he defeated him in the battle of Pharsalia (48 B.C.). Pompey fled to Egypt, and was shortly afterward murdered by a centurion of his own army.

Dictatorship. Cæsar was now sole master in the great Roman empire. After putting down revolts in Syria, Asia Minor, and Africa, he returned to Rome, and was accorded four great triumphs by the Senate. In 45 B.C. a revolt broke out in Spain, headed by the sons of Pompey; but this was put down by the battle of Munda, in which Pompey's sons were slain. The battle of Munda was made the occasion for Cæsar's fifth triumph; and it is at the time of this last return to Rome that Shakespeare's play of Julius Cæsar begins. The Senate welcomed him home with the most abject flattery. He was made Dictator for life, his head was stamped on the coinage, the month Quintilis was changed to Julius, or July, in his honor, and he was accorded divine honors as one of the gods.

Cæsar's Reforms and Death. With absolute power in his hands he set about reconstructing the government and alleviating the distresses of the common peo

ple. He made the Senate a much larger and more representative body, extended the citizenship to inhabitants beyond the Po, eliminated "graft" in the provinces, passed laws in the interest of debtors, prohibited farming exclusively by slave labor, and planned a codification of the Roman system of law. He was about to accomplish other material reforms when he was assassinated on the 15th of March, 44 B.C.

Shakespeare's Julius Cæsar. The play of Julius Cæsar deals with the famous plot of Brutus and Cassius against his life, the assassination, and the revenge taken upon the conspirators by Octavius Cæsar and Mark Antony.

DARDANIUS,

friends of Brutus and Cassius.

servants of Brutus.

PINDARUS, servant of Cassius.

CALPURNIA, wife of Cæsar.

PORTIA, wife of Brutus.

Senators, Citizens, Guards, Attendants, &c.

SCENE: Rome; the neighborhood of Sardis; the neighborhood of Philippi,

The Tragedy of Julius Caesar

ACT FIRST

[SCENE I]

[Rome. A street.] 1

Enter FLAVIUS, MARULLUS, and certain COMMONERS over the stage.2

Flav. Hence! home, you idle creatures, get you home.
Is this a holiday? what! know you not,
Being mechanical,° you ought not walk
Upon a laboring day without the sign

3

Of your profession? Speak, what trade art thou? Carpenter. Why, sir, a carpenter.

Mar. Where is thy leather apron and thy rule?

What dost thou with thy best apparel on?
You, sir, what trade are you? 4

Cobbler. Truly, sir, in respect of a fine workman,
I am but, as you would say, a cobbler.5

ΙΟ

1 Scene divisions and place directions have been supplied since Shakespeare's day. Place and time are indicated more accurately in the scene itself, usually near the beginning.

2 The "Commoners" of course come on the stage first. How will they occupy themselves until the arrival of Flavius and Marullus?

Was this a Roman or an English custom?

4 When does Shakespeare use you, and when thou? (See APPENDIX, Shakespeare's Grammar, p. 120.)

5 Consult an unabridged dictionary for the old meaning of this word.