In some of our States epilepsy is a cause for divorce. Cæsar, the epileptic, to the contrary, bounced the nonepileptic.
To be just and generous we must give Cæsar credit for never having cut off the heads of his discredited wives as our burly "Defender of the Faith" did. He more humanely, perhaps, gave them legal authority to marry again, so that he gained their respect rather than incurred their displeasure.
He contracted debts equal to a million and a half dollars before getting remunerative employment, and when elected edile, not only paid for the contests of three hundred and twenty pairs of gladiators with other people's money,—a custom it would seem still in vogue,—but in all other diversions outdid precedent. To paraphrase from Sir Joshua, was ever epileptic so trusted?
He would seem to have rested but little either day or night. Continuing rapidly from one point of political importance to another at last he united with Pompey and Cassius, forming the alliance known as the First Triumvirate, and obtained for himself by popular vote governmental control in Cisalpine Gaul, Transalpine Gaul, and Illyricum.
Both by valor and eloquence he thus obtained the highest reputation in the field and in the Senate. "Beloved and esteemed by his fellow-citizens," writes Suetonius, "he enjoyed successively every magisterial and military honor the state could give, consistent with its constitution."
