country. Returning to Rome with the title of Dictator, which had been bestowed on him during his absence, he passed various salutary measures for restoring order in Italy, and among them one conferring the Roman citizenship on the Cisalpine Gauls; then crossed over into Greece (B. C. 49) to give battle to Pompey, who had meanwhile assembled forces from all parts of the Roman dominion. At length the two armies met on the plain of Pharsalia in Thessaly (9th August B. C. 48), when Pompey sustained a complete defeat. Not long afterwards he was killed by the orders of Ptolemy, king of Egypt, when seeking to land on the coast of that country. Cæsar, who had used his victory with great moderation, arrived in Egypt soon after, and remained there several months, fascinated by Cleopatra, who was then at war with her brother Ptolemy.
Having settled the affairs of Egypt, Cæsar proceeded to Asia Minor, crushed an insurrection there headed by Pharnaces, the son of Mithridates, and then (September, B. C. 47) returned to Italy. He remained there but a few months, setting out in the beginning of B. C. 46 for Africa, where the relics of the Pompeian party had taken refuge. These were soon defeated; and Cato, the most distinguished man among them, killed himself rather than to fall into his conqueror's hands. Pompey's two sons escaped to Spain, where they excited an insurrection, which, however, was soon suppressed.
EXTINCTION OF THE COMMONWEALTH—DICTATORSHIP AND DEATH OF
CÆSAR—THE SECOND TRIUMVIRATE—CIVIL WARS OF
MARK ANTONY AND OCTAVIANUS.
From August B. C. 48, when he defeated Pompey at Pharsalia, till March B. C. 44, when he was assassinated, Julius Cæsar was supreme master of the Roman world. Senate and people vied with each other in conferring dignities upon him; and all the great offices and titles recognized by the Roman constitution—as consul, dictator, censor, tribune, etc.—were concentrated in his person, while he exercised the virtual patronage of almost all the rest. In short, the Commonwealth may be said to have ceased when he defeated Pompey; and had he lived long enough, there is no doubt that he would have fully established the Empire. It was not so much, however, in organic changes of the constitution, as in practical reforms of vast moment, that Cæsar exercised the enormous power which had been placed in his hands. Besides the various measures of reform which he actually carried into effect during his dictatorship, among which his famous reform of the Calendar deserves especial mention, there were innumerable schemes which he had projected for himself, and some of which he would probably have executed, had his life not been cut short. To extend the Roman dominion in the East; to drain the Pontine marshes; to cut through the Isthmus of Corinth; to prepare a complete map of the Roman Empire; to draw up a new digest of Roman law; to establish public libraries in the metropolis—such were a few of the designs which this great man entertained at the time when the conspiracy was formed which led to his assassination. At the head of this plot, which consisted of about sixty persons of note, were Brutus and Cassius, both men of the highest abilities, and esteemed by Cæsar; and the former at least actuated by motives of the purest character. The immediate occasion of the conspiracy was the rumor
