While Pompey, who warmly espoused the Marian faetion, strove to gain the favor of the people, by abrogating, many of the tyrannical laws of Sylla, Crassus employed his amazing wealth in donations, distributions of corn among the poor, in public feasts and entertainments; and it is said, that he supported, at his own private expense, the greatest part of the citizens, for several months; expenditures sufficient to have exhausted the treasures of the greatest princes. In the progress of their contests for power, their animosities broke forth on every occasion, in opposition. more or less direct, and by means more or less violent.

At this period, while the destinies of Rome seemed to hang in doubtful suspense, three characters appeared of very different complexions, but equally extraordinary, equally to be remembered, but with very different emotions, in posterity; Catiline, Cicero, and Cesar. One of these men procured for himself immortal fame by his atrocious villany; one, by his unrivalled eloquence; and one, by his ambition, bravery and good fortune.

Julius Cesar may be regarded as the greatest of the Roman commanders. In him the military genius of Rome displayed its utmost strength and perfection. But, as yet, he was not known in that group of great characters and personages, who, now inflamed with ambition, were preparing to carve and divide the world among them. Lucius Catiline is allowed by all writers to have possessed every quality, of a great man, but integrity and virtue ;* instead of which, he held every principle, and practised every vice, which could form a most infamous, atrocious and abandoned villain. Possessed of a body and mind equally strong and vigorous, he was bold, enterprising and industrious. He hesitated at no cruelty to gratify his revenge; he abstained from no crime, which could subserve his pleasures; he valued no labor or peril to gratify his ambition. Catiline perceiving himself not among the most favored rivals, who were courting the mistress of the world, determined on getting

* There is no more difficulty in conceiving, that a man may be great, without goodness, than that a mountain may be great, without beauty. If goodness is essential to greatness, then, neither Romulus, nor Themistocles, nor Brennus, nor Philip, nor Alexander, nor Hannibal, nor Marius, nor Mithridates, nor Cesar, nor Mahomet, nor Genghis Khan, nor Bajazet, nor Tamerlane, nor Solyman, nor Charles V.-was a great man. If goodness is essential to greatness, then, to say of any great man, that he is good, must be superfluous.--Ed.

her into his possession by violence. His end was the same as theirs; but his means were more unwarrantable. He planned and organized one of the deepest, most extensive and daring conspiracies, recorded in history. The leading objects of his conspiracy were, to put out of the way by one general massacre, all who would be likely to oppose his measures; to pillage the city of Rome; to seize all public treasures, arsenals and stores; to establish a despotic government; to revolutionize the whole republic; and to accomplish all these measures by an armed force.

This sanguinary plot was detected and crushed by Cicero, the great and justly celebrated orator of Rome. The accomplices of Catiline were seized, and put to death; and Catiline himself, who had assembled an army of twelve thousand men, was encountered, defeated and slain.

But if Rome escaped this threatening gulf, it was, that she might fall into a snare, apparently less dreadful, but equally strong and conclusive as to her fate. Her days of virtue and glory were past. Henceforth, she was to be ruled with a rod of iron. The dissensions of Pompey and Crassus were quieted by the mediation of Cesar, who stepped in between them, outwitted them both, and became the head of the first triumvirate. Having amicably agreed to govern in copartnership, Pompey chose Spain; Crassus chose the rich and luxurious province of Asia; and to Cesar, were allotted the powerful and warlike nations of Gaul, as yet unconquered. What was the result? Pompey basked for a moment in the splendors of Rome; and his fame was trumpeted by the eloquence of Cicero. Crassus was slain by the Parthians, endeavoring to enlarge his territories; and Cesar conquered the Gauls in a thousand buttles. Pompey could not bear an equal, nor Cesar a superior. They were mutually jealous; they differed; they prepared for war.

The senate and nobility of Rome, and pride and strength of Italy, sided with Pompey Cesar relied wholly on those veteran legions, with whom he had subdued the fierce and martial tribes of Gaul and Germany. No other civil war ever equalled this. It was a melancholy sight to see Rome given up to tyranny and blood-to see that august and venerable republic forever abandoned to her evil genius. These were not the feeble bickerings of petty controversy. Marius and Sylla, the leaders of the former civil broils, bore little comparison with Cesar at the head of his legions,

or with the great Pompey, who could almost raise armies out of the earth by the stamp of his foot.

This eventful struggle was at length closed by the battle of Pharsalia, rendered truly famous by the grand object, for which they fought, the greatness of the force employed on either side, and by the transcendant reputation of both commanders. The Roman empire was the prize; and both the armies and the generals were the best the world could afford. Pompey was utterly defeated; and many of his army, won over by the magnanimous clemency and generosity of Cesar, were content to change sides. The conduct of Pompey in this battle, which was to decide his fate, has ever been considered strange and unaccountable. So far was he from displaying that courage, intrepidity and fortitude, and those powers of command, which he was supposed to possess, that, from the very first onset, he appeared like a man frightened out of his senses; he scarcely attempted to rally his men, was among the foremost that fled, and never made another effort to retrieve his cause. From facts so glaring, we are almost induced to believe, that much of Pompey's greatness as a soldier and commander, consisted in the elegant drawings of Cicero, and other partial writers. The true test of bravery, skill and fortitude, is to see them displayed, where they are most necessary-to see them shine in danger, surmount difficulty, and triumph over adversity.

Yet no one can doubt that Pompey was a man of great and splendid talents. But who could equal Cesar? a man supereminent in the whole extensive range of intellectual endowments. Nature seemed to have scanted him in nothing. Among philosophers, mathematicians, poets and orators, he could shine. He could plan and execute; he could negotiate or fight; he could gain and improve an advantage. For seven years in his Gallic wars, his life was a continual series of fatigues and dear bought victories; and no general, but one as great as Cesar, could have encountered him without apprehension and dismay.

The battle of Pharsalia was fought 48 years before Christ, and 705 from the building of the city. Pompey fled an unhappy exile into Egypt and was there miserably murdered by the command of Ptolemy. Thus the reins of government fell into the hands of Cesar; and he was left undisputed master of the world. The clemency of Cesar, on this occasion, was as illustrious, as his victories had been.