As an illustration of his rapidity of movement, at the battle of Thrapsus when Scipio was constructing ramparts Cæsar made his way into an almost impenetrably wooded country and utterly routed him, putting the whole army of this experienced veteran to flight. And as if that were not enough for one day, he took the entire camp of Afranius, destroyed that of the Numidians, their King Jubba barely escaping with his life, and thus in twenty-four hours made himself the master of three camps, with their enormous booty in silver and gold, killed fifty thousand of the enemy, with a loss to himself of only fifty men.
After this battle, while drawing up his army and giving orders, he had an attack, Plutarch tells us, of "his old distemper"—and do you wonder? Before it had time to overpower him, he directed his men, Plutarch continues, to carry him to a neighboring tower until the fit was over.
He seems usually to have had premonitions of his seizures, and must also have connected them with either gastric or intestinal disturbance, as indicated also in the case of Lord Byron, hence his excessive abstemiousness, except on rare occasions. Yet, in spite of all, during his life he won and put upon record three hundred and twenty triumphs, to say nothing of his orations, his history, and the number of destroyed cities he rebuilt.
