For these reasons the Senate awarded him a triumph. He was making preparations outside the walls for a most splendid procession, during the days when candidates for the consulship were required to present themselves. It was not lawful for one who was going to have a triumph to enter the city and then go back again for the triumph. As Caesar was very anxious to secure the office, and his procession was not yet ready, he sent to the Senate and asked permission to go through the forms of standing for the consulship while absent, through the instrumentalities of friends, for although he knew it was against the law it had been done by others.
Cato opposed his proposition and used up the last day for the presentation of candidates, in speech-making. Thereupon Caesar abandoned his triumph, entered the city, offered himself as a candidate, and waited for the comitia. Most Senators, however, moved by envy, made opposition, and especially Lucullus, who had held the command against Mithridates before Pompey, and who considered that the victory was his, since he had left the king for Pompey in a state of extreme weakness.
Crassus co-operated with Lucullus in this matter. The latter thereupon brought Crassus into friendly relations with Pompey. So these three most powerful men pooled their interests. This coalition the Roman writer Varro treated of in a book entitled Tricaranus the three-headed monster. Caesar, who was a master of dissimulation, made speeches in the Senate in the interest of concord to Bibulus, insinuating that any differences between them might have serious results for the state.
As he was believed to be sincere, Bibulus was thrown off his guard, and while he was unprepared and unsuspecting Caesar secretly got a large band of soldiers in readiness and brought before the Senate measures for the relief of the poor by the distribution of the public land to them. The best part of this land especially round Capua, which was leased for the public benefit, he proposed to bestow upon those who were the fathers of at least three children, by which means he bought for himself the favour of a multitude of men, for twenty thousand, being those only who had three children each, came forward at once.
As many senators opposed his motion he pretended to be indignant at their injustice, and rushed out of the Senate and did not convene it again for the remainder of the year, but harangued the people from the rostra. In a public assembly he asked Pompey and Crassus what they thought about his proposed laws. They planned, however, that Bibulus should opposite Caesar's laws, so that they should seem to be overcome by force rather than to suffer by their own negligence.
Accordingly, Bibulus burst into the forum while Caesar was still speaking. Strife and tumult arose, blows were given, and those who had daggers broke the fasces and insignia of Bibulus and wounded some of the tribunes who stood around him. Bibulus was in no wise terrified, but bared his neck to Caesar's partisans and loudly called on them to strike.
Then Cato was summoned to the spot, and being a young man, forced his way to the midst of the crowd and began to make a speech, but was lifted up and carried out by Caesar's partisans. Then he went around secretly by another street and again mounted the rostra; but as he despaired of making a speech, since nobody would listen to him, he abused Caesar roundly until he was again lifted up and ejected by the Caesarians, and Caesar secured the enactment of his laws. Then they became alarmed and took the oath, including the tribunes, for it was no longer of any use to speak against it after the law had been confirmed by the others.
And now Vettius, a plebeian, ran into the forum with a drawn dagger and said that he had been sent by Bibulus, Cicero, and Cato to kill Caesar and Pompey, and that the dagger had been given to him by Postumius, the lictor of Bibulus. Although this affair was open to suspicion from either point of view, Caesar made use of it to inflame the multitude and postponed till the morrow the examination of the assailant.
Vettius was thrown into prison and killed the same night. As this transaction was variously commented on, Caesar did not let it pass unnoticed, but said that it had been done by the opposite party, who were afraid of exposure. The Senate regularly shelved the question. As Caesar did not want anything of the Senate then, but was employing the people only, he released the publicans from the third part of their obligations.
For this unexpected favour, which was far beyond their deserts, the knights extolled Caesar to the skies. Thus a more powerful body of defenders than that of the plebeians was added to Caesar's support through one political act. He gave spectacles and combats of wild beasts beyond his means, borrowing money on all sides, and surpassing all former exhibitions in lavish display and splendid gifts, in consequence of which he was appointed governor of both Cisalpine and Transalpine Gaul for five years, with the command of four legions. He also promoted the boldest of his partisans to the principal offices for the ensuing year.
For tribunes he chose Vatinius and Clodius Pulcher, although the latter had been suspected of an intrigue with the wife 8 of Caesar himself during a religious ceremony of women. Caesar, however, did not bring him to trial owing to his popularity with the masses, but divorced his wife. Others prosecuted Clodius for impiety at the sacred rites, and Cicero was the counsel for the prosecution.
When Caesar was called as a witness he refused to testify against Clodius, but even raised him to the tribuneship as a foil to Cicero, who was already decrying the triumvirate as tending toward monarchy. Thus Caesar turned a private grievance to useful account and benefited one enemy in order to revenge himself on another. It appears, however, that Clodius had previously requited Caesar by helping him to secure the governorship of Gaul. He then laid down his magistracy and proceeded directly to his new government.
Clodius now brought an accusation against Cicero for putting Lentulus and Cethegus and their followers to death without trial. Cicero, who had exhibited the highest courage in that transaction, became utterly unnerved at his trial. Into such trepidation did he fall at this single trial of his own, although he had been managing other people's causes successfully all his life. In like manner they say that Demosthenes the Athenian did not stand his ground when himself accused, but fled before the trial.
When Clodius interrupted Cicero's supplications on the streets with contumely, he gave way to despair and, like Demosthenes, went into voluntary exile. Clodius demolished his house and his villas, and was so much elated by this affair that he compared himself with Pompey, who was then the most powerful man in Rome. He hoped that when Cicero should come back he would no longer speak against the existing status the triumvirate , remembering what he had suffered, but would make trouble for Clodius and bring punishment upon him. Thus Cicero, who had been exiled by means of Pompey, was recalled by means of Pompey about sixteen months after his banishment, and the Senate rebuilt his house and his villas at the public expense.
He was received magnificently at the city gates, and it is said that a whole day was consumed by the greetings extended to him, as was the case with Demosthenes when he returned. From this district he sent large sums of money to many persons in Rome, to those who were holding the yearly offices and to persons otherwise distinguished as governors and generals, and they went thither by turns to meet him. All things were now possible to Caesar by reason of his large army, his great riches, and his readiness to oblige everybody.
Pompey and Crassus, his partners in the triumvirate, came also. In their conference b it was decided that Pompey and Crassus should be elected consuls again and that Caesar's governorship over his provinces should be extended for five years more. Thereupon they separated and Domitius Ahenobarbus offered himself as a candidate for the consulship against Pompey. When the appointed day came, both went down to the Campus Martius before daylight to attend the comitia.
Their followers got into an altercation and came to blows, and finally somebody assaulted the torchbearer of Domitius with a sword. Even Pompey's clothing was carried home stained with blood, 10 so great was the danger incurred by both candidates. The provinces were allotted with an army to each consul in the following manner: Pompey chose Spain and Africa, but sent friends to take charge of them, he himself remaining in Rome.
Crassus took Syria and the adjacent country because he wanted a war with the Parthians, which he thought would be easy as well as glorious and profitable. But when he took his departure from the city there were many unfavourable omens, and the tribunes forbade the war against the Parthians, who had done no wrong to the Romans. The disaster to Crassus will be described in my Parthian history. As the Romans were suffering from scarcity, they appointed Pompey the sole manager of the grain supply and gave him, as in his operations against the pirates, twenty assistants from the Senate.
These he distributed in like manner among the provinces while he superintended the whole, and thus Rome was very soon provided with abundant supplies, by which means Pompey again gained great reputation and power. The magistrates were chosen by means of money, and faction fights, with dishonest zeal, with the aid of stones and even swords. Bribery and corruption prevailed in the most scandalous manner. The people themselves went already bought to the elections. The consuls holding office yearly could not hope to lead armies or to command in war because they were shut out by the power of the triumvirate.
The baser among them strove for gain, instead of military commands, at the expense of the public treasury or from the election of their own successors. For these reasons good men abstained from office altogether, and the disorder was such that at one time the republic was without consuls for eight months, Pompey conniving at the state of affairs in order that there might be need of a dictator. They merely exchanged hostile scowls and passed along; but one of Milo's servants attacked Clodius, either because he was ordered to do so or because he wanted to kill his master's enemy, and stabbed him through the back with a dagger.
Clodius' groom carried him bleeding into a neighbouring inn. Milo followed with his servants and finished him, — whether he was still alive, or already dead, is not known — for, although he claimed that he had neither advised nor ordered the murder, he was not willing to leave the deed unfinished because he knew that he would be accused in any event.
When the news of this affair was circulated in Rome, the people were thunderstruck, and they passed the night in the forum. Some of the tribunes and the friends of Clodius and a great crowd with them seized it and carried it to the senate-house, either to confer honour upon it, as he was of senatorial birth, or as an act of contumely to the Senate for conniving at such deeds.
There the most reckless ones collected the benches and chairs of the senators and made a funeral pyre for him, which they lighted and from which the senate-house and many buildings in the neighbourhood caught fire and were consumed along with the corpse of Clodius. He collected a crowd of slaves and rustics, and, after sending some money to be distributed among the people and buying Marcus Caelius, one of the tribunes, he came back to the city with the greatest boldness.
Directly he entered, Caelius dragged him to the forum to be tried by those whom he had bribed, as though by an assembly of the people, pretending to be very indignant and not willing to grant any delay, but really hoping that if those present should acquit him he would escape a more regular trial.
Milo said that the deed was not premeditated, since nobody would set out with such intentions encumbered with his luggage and his wife. The remainder of his speech was directed against Clodius as a desperado and a friend of desperadoes who had set fire to the senate-house and burned it to ashes over his body. While he was still speaking the other tribunes, with the unbribed portion of the people, burst into the forum armed. Search was not made for the friends of Milo, but all who were met with, whether citizens or strangers, were killed, and especially those who wore fine clothes and gold rings.
As the government was without order, these ruffians, who were for the most part slaves and were armed men against unarmed, indulged their rage and, making an excuse of the tumult that had broken out, they turned to pillage. They abstained from no crime, but broke into houses, looking for any kind of portable property, while pretending to be searching for the friends of Milo. For several days Milo was their excuse for burning, stoning, and every sort of outrage. He was the first of consuls who had two of the greatest provinces, and an army, and the public money, and autocratic power in the city, by virtue of being sole consul.
When Ptolemy heard of the decree he threw his money into the sea and killed himself, and Cato settled the government of Cyprus. He brought forward a law, that any citizen who chose to do so might call for an account from anybody who had held office from the time of his own first consulship to the present.
This embraced a period of a little less than twenty years, during which Caesar also had been consul; wherefore Caesar's friends suspected that he included so long a time in order to cast reproach and contumely on Caesar, and urged him to straighten out the present situation rather than stir up the past to the annoyance of so many distinguished men, among whom they named Caesar. Pompey pretended to be indignant at the mention of Caesar's name, as though he were above suspicion, and said that his own second consulship was embraced in the period, and that he had gone back a considerable time in order to effect a complete cure of the evils from which the republic had been so long wasting away.
In order that the jurors might act without fear Pompey superintended them in person, and stationed soldiers around them. The first defendants convicted were absentees: The people interceded for Scaurus, but Pompey made proclamation that they should submit to the decision of the court. When the crowd again interrupted the accusers, Pompey's soldiers made a charge and killed several. Then the people held their tongues and Scaurus was convicted.
All the accused were banished, and Gabinius was fined in addition. The Senate praised Pompey highly for these proceedings, voted him two more legions, and extended the term of his provincial government. Thereupon Pompey put on mourning and many of the jurors did the same. Memmius took pity on the republic and withdrew the accusation.
He enjoyed the good-will of the Senate, particularly because they were jealous of Caesar, who did not consult the Senate during his consulship, and because Pompey had so speedily restored the sick commonwealth, and had not made himself offensive or troublesome to any of them during his term of office.
Caesar cheered them up and spoke well of Pompey.
He also induced the tribunes to bring in a law to enable himself to stand for the consulship a second time while absent, and this was enacted while Pompey was still consul and without opposition from him. Caesar suspected that the Senate would resist this project and feared lest he should be reduced to the condition of a private citizen and exposed to his enemies. So he tried to retain his power until he should be elected consul, and asked the Senate to grant him a little more time in his present command of Gaul, or of a part of it.
Marcellus, who succeeded Pompey as consul, forbade it. They say that when this was announced to Caesar, he clapped his hand on his sword-hilt and exclaimed, "This shall give it to me. Marcellus in his passion revealed his real intention that the blows should be the brand of the alien, and he told the man to carry his scars and show them to Caesar. So insulting was Marcellus. For this reason the bitterest enemies of Caesar were chosen consuls for the ensuing year: Aemilius Paulus and Claudius Marcellus, cousin of the Marcellus before mentioned.
Curio, who was also a bitter enemy of Caesar, but extremely popular with the masses and a most accomplished speaker, was chosen tribune. He knew that he could not carry any such measure, but he hoped that Pompey's friends would oppose him, so that he might have that as a grievance against Pompey. Things turned out as he had anticipated, so that he had a pretext for disagreement. Claudius proposed the sending of successors to take command of Caesar's provinces, as his term was now expiring.
Many opposed this as unjust, because Pompey's term had not yet expired. Then Curio came out more openly and harshly against sending successors to Caesar unless Pompey also should lay down his command; for since they were both suspicious of each other, he contended that there could be no lasting peace to the commonwealth unless they should all be reduced to the character of private citizens. He said this because he saw that the people were incensed against Pompey on account of his prosecutions for bribery.
As Curio's position was plausible, the plebeians praised him as the only one who was willing to incur the enmity of both Pompey and Caesar in order to fulfil worthily his duties as a citizen; and once they escorted him home, scattering flowers, as though he were an athlete and had won the prize in some great and difficult contest; for nothing was considered more perilous then than to have a difference with Pompey. When Pompey came back to the city, he spoke to the senators in the same way and then, also, promised to lay down his command. In virtue, of course, of his friendship and marriage connection with Caesar he said that the latter would very cheerfully do the same, for his had been a long and laborious contest against very warlike peoples; he had added much to the Roman power, and now he would come back to his honours, his sacrificial duties, and his relaxations.
He said these things in order that successors to Caesar might be sent at once, while he himself should merely rest content with his promise. Curio exposed his artifice, saying that promises were not sufficient, and insisting that Pompey should lay down his command now and that Caesar should not be disarmed until Pompey himself had returned to private life.
On account of private enmity, he said, it would not be advisable either for Caesar or for the Romans that such great authority should be held by one man. Rather should each of them have power against the other, in case one should attempt violence against the commonwealth. Now at last throwing off all disguise, he denounced Pompey unsparingly as one aiming at supreme power, and said that unless he would lay down his command now, when he had the fear of Caesar before his eyes, he would never lay it down at all.
He moved that, unless they both obeyed, both should be voted public enemies and military forces be levied against them. The Senate now had suspicions of both, but it considered Pompey the better republican of the two, and it hated Caesar because he had not shown it proper respect during his consulship. Some of the senators really thought that it would not be safe to the commonwealth to deprive Pompey of his power until after Caesar should lay down his, since the latter was outside of the city and was the man of more magnificent designs.
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Curio held the contrary opinion, that they had need of Caesar against the power of Pompey, or otherwise that both armies should be disbanded at the same time. As the Senate would not agree with him he dismissed it, leaving the whole business unfinished, having the power to do so as tribune. Thus Pompey had occasion to regret that he had restored the tribunician power to its pristine vigour after it had been reduced to a mere shadow by Sulla. Nevertheless, one decree was voted before the session was ended, and that was that Caesar and Pompey should each send one legion of soldiers to Syria to defend the province on account of the disaster to Crassus.
Pompey artfully recalled the legion that he had lately lent to Caesar on account of the disaster to Caesar's two generals, Titurius and Cotta. They affirmed that Caesar's army was wasted by protracted service, that the soldiers longed for their homes and would change to the side of Pompey as soon as they should cross the Alps.
They spoke in this way either from ignorance or because they were corrupted.
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In fact, every soldier was strongly attached to Caesar and laboured zealously for him, under the force of discipline and the influence of the gain which war usually brings to victors and which they received from Caesar also; for he gave with a lavish hand in order to mould them to his designs. They knew what his designs were, but they stood by him nevertheless. Pompey, however, believed what was reported to him and collected neither soldiers nor apparatus suitable for so great a contest.
In the Senate the opinion of each member was asked and Claudius craftily divided the question and took the votes separately, thus: Then Curio put the question whether both should lay down their commands, and 22 senators voted in the negative while went back to the opinion of Curio in order to avoid civil discord.
Then Claudius dismissed the Senate, exclaiming, "Enjoy your victory and have Caesar for a master. Curio had no power outside the city for it was not permitted to the tribunes to go beyond the walls , but he publicly deplored the state of affairs and demanded that the consuls should make proclamation that nobody need obey the conscription ordered by Pompey. As he could accomplish nothing, and as his term of office as tribune was about expiring, and he feared for his safety and despaired of being able to render any further assistance to Caesar, he hastily departed to join him.
After embracing Curio and returning thanks for what he had done for him, he reviewed the situation. Curio advised him to bring his whole army together now and lead it to Rome, but Caesar thought it best still to try to come to terms. So he directed his friends to make an agreement in his behalf, that he should deliver up all his provinces and soldiers, except that he should retain two legions and Illyria with Cisalpine Gaul until he should be elected consul. This was satisfactory to Pompey, but the consuls refused.
When this letter was read, as it was considered a declaration of war, a vehement shout was raised on all sides that Lucius Domitius be Caesar's successor. Then Antony sprang from his chair in anger and with a loud voice called gods and men to witness the indignity put upon the sacred and inviolable office of tribune, saying that while they were expressing the opinion which they deemed best for the public interest, they were driven out with contumely though they had wrought no murder or outrage.
Having spoken thus he rushed out like one possessed, predicting war, slaughter, proscription, banishment, confiscation, and various other impending evils, and invoking direful curses on the authors of them. Curio and Cassius rushed out with him, for a detachment of Pompey's army was already observed standing around the senate-house. The tribunes made their way to Caesar the next night with the utmost speed, concealing themselves in a hired carriage, and disguised as slaves.
Caesar showed them in this condition to his army, whom he excited by saying that his soldiers, after all their great deeds, had been stigmatized as public enemies and that distinguished men like these, who had dared to say a word for them, had been thus driven out with ignominy. With the fury of party rage they levied additional contributions on the allied cities, which they collected with the greatest possible haste.
This was the first town in Italy after leaving Cisalpine Gaul. Toward evening Caesar himself rose from a banquet on a plea of indisposition, leaving his friends who were still feasting. He mounted his chariot and drove toward Ariminum, his cavalry following at a short distance. When his course brought him to the river Rubicon, which forms the boundary line of Italy, he stopped and, while gazing at the stream, revolved in his mind the evils that would result, should he cross the river in arms.
Recovering himself, he said to those who were present, "My friends, to leave this stream uncrossed will breed manifold distress for me; to cross it, for all mankind. As is usual in cases of panic, there was flight and migration from all the country-side in disorder and tears, the people having no exact knowledge, but thinking that Caesar was pushing on with all his might and with an immense army.
The Senate also was alarmed at Caesar's unexpectedly swift advance, for which it was still unprepared, and in its panic repented that it had not accepted Caesar's proposals, which it at last considered fair, after fear had turned it from the rage of party to the counsels of prudence. Many portents and signs in the sky took place. Sweat issued from the statues of the gods. Lightning struck several temples.
There were many other prodigies which betokened the overturn and change for all time in the form of government. Prayers were offered up in public as was customary in times of danger, and the people who remembered the evil times of Marius and Sulla, clamoured that both Caesar and Pompey ought to lay down their commands as the only means of averting war. Cicero proposed to send messengers to Caesar in order to come to an arrangement.
Places and houses are not strength and freedom to men; but men, wherever they may be, have these qualities within themselves, and by defending themselves will recover their homes also. The other senators remained undecided a long time and passed the night together in the senate-house. At daybreak, however, most of them departed and hastened after Pompey. The inhabitants of Corfinium captured him at the gates, as he was trying to escape, and brought him to Caesar. The latter received the soldiers of Domitius, who offered themselves to him, with kindness, in order to encourage others to join him, and he allowed Domitius to go unharmed wherever he liked, and to take his own money with him.
While these transactions were taking place thus swiftly, Pompey hastened from Capua to Nuceria and thence to Brundusium in order to cross the Adriatic to Epirus and complete his preparations for war there. He wrote letters to all the provinces and the commanders thereof, to princes, kings, and cities to send aid for carrying on the war with the greatest possible speed, and this they did zealously. Pompey's own army was in Spain ready to move wherever it might be needed.
Dyrrachus, the son of his daughter and of Neptune as is supposed , added a dockyard to it which he named Dyrrachium. When the brothers of this Dyrrachus made war against him, Hercules, who was returning from Erythrea, formed an alliance with him for a part of his territory; wherefore the men of Dyrrachium claim Hercules as their founder because he had a share of their land, not that they repudiate Dyrrachus, but because they pride themselves on Hercules even more as a god. In the battle which took place it is said that Hercules killed Ionius, the son of Dyrrachus, by mistake, and that after raising a barrow he threw the body into the sea in order that it might bear his name.
They were supplanted by the Taulantii, an Illyrian tribe, who were displaced in their turn by the Liburnians, another Illyrian tribe, who were in the habit of making piratical expeditions against their neighbours with very swift ships.
Thayer's Notes:
Hence the Romans call swift ships Liburnians because these were the first ones they came in conflict with. The people who had been expelled from Dyrrachium by the Liburnians procured the aid of the Corcyreans, who then ruled the sea, and drove out the Liburnians. The Corcyreans mingled their own colonists with them and thus it came to be considered a Greek port; but the Corcyreans changed its name, because they considered it unpropitious, and called it Epidamnus from the town just above it, and Thucydides gives it that name also.
Nevertheless, the former name prevailed finally and it is now called Dyrrachium. Pompey led the remainder to Brundusium, where he awaited the return of the ships that had carried the others over. Here Caesar advanced against him, and he defended himself from behind the walls and dug trenches to cut off the city until his fleet came back. Then he took his departure in the early morning, leaving the bravest of his troops on the walls. These also sailed away after nightfall, with a favourable wind.
Thus Pompey and his whole army abandoned Italy and passed over to Epirus. As he had apprehensions of Pompey's army in Spain, which was large and well disciplined by long service lest while he was pursuing Pompey it should fall upon his rear , he decided to march to Spain and destroy that army first. He now divided his forces into five parts, one of which he left at Brundusium, another at Hydrus, and another at Tarentum to guard Italy. Another he sent under command of Quintus Valerius to take possession of the grain-producing island of Sardinia, which was done. He sent Asinius Pollio to Sicily, which was then under the command of Cato.
When Cato asked him whether he had brought the order of the Senate, or that of the people, to take possession of a government that had been assigned to another, Pollio replied, "The master of Italy has sent me on this business. He then sailed away to Corcyra and from Corcyra to Pompey. He found the people shuddering with recollection of the horrors of Marius and Sulla, and he cheered them with the prospect and promise of clemency. In proof of his kindness to his enemies, he said that he had taken Lucius Domitius prisoner and allowed him to go away unharmed with his money.
Nevertheless, he hewed down the bars of the public treasury, and when Metellus, one of the tribunes, tried to prevent him from entering threatened him with death. Caesar said that he had subjugated the Gauls completely and thus released the commonwealth from the curse. He then placed Aemilius Lepidus in charge of the city, and the tribune, Marcus Antonius, in charge of Italy and of the army guarding it. He ordered the building of two fleets with all speed, one in the Adriatic and the other in the Tyrrhenian sea, and appointed Hortensius and Dolabella their admirals while they were still under construction.
He pitched his camp on some high ground and obtained his supplies by means of a bridge across the river Sicoris. Suddenly a spate carried way his bridge and cut off a great number of his men on the opposite side, who were destroyed by the forces of Petreius. Caesar himself, with the rest of his army, suffered very severely from the difficulty of the site, from hunger, from the weather, and from the enemy, his situation being in no wise different from that of a siege.
Finally, on the approach of summer, Afranius and Petreius withdrew to the interior of Spain to recruit more soldiers, but Caesar continually anticipated them, blocked their passage, and prevented their advance. They raised their shields over their heads in token of surrender, but Caesar neither captured nor slaughtered them, but allowed them to go back to Afranius unharmed, after his usual manner of winning the favour of his enemies. Hence it came to pass that there was continual intercourse between the camps and talk of reconciliation among the rank and file.
Petreius opposed this and ran through the camp killing those of Caesar's men whom he found holding communication with his own. He even slew with his own hand one of his officers who tried to restrain him. Moved by these acts of severity on the part of Petreius, the minds of the soldiers were still more attracted to the clemency of Caesar. Soon afterward Caesar managed to cut off the enemy's access to water, and Petreius was compelled by necessity to come with Afranius to a conference with Caesar between the two armies.
Here it was agreed that they should abandon Spain to Caesar, and that he should conduct them unharmed to the other side of the river Varus and allow them to proceed thence to Pompey. Arrived at this stream, Caesar called a meeting of all those who were from Rome or Italy and addressed them as follows: If there is any gratitude among you for these favours tell them to all of Pompey's soldiers.
These were the operations of Caesar. He landed at Utica and put to flight a body of Numidian horse in a small cavalry engagement near that place, and allowed himself to be saluted as Imperator by the soldiers with their arms still in their hands. This title is an honour conferred upon generals by their soldiers, who thus testify that they consider them worthy to be their commanders.
In the olden times the generals accepted this honour only for the greatest exploits. Their expectation was fulfilled. Curio encamped there and his army immediately fell sick. When they drank the water their eyesight became dim as in a mist, and sleep with torpor ensued, and after that frequent vomiting and spasms of the whole body.
For this reason Curio changed his camp to the neighbourhood of Utica itself, leading his enfeebled army through an extensive marshy region. But when they received the news of Caesar's victory in Spain they took courage and put themselves in order of battle in a narrow space along the seashore.
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Created by independent British game developer Introversion Software , and inspired in part by the film WarGames. Countdown to Looking Glass. Shadow on the Hearth. Judith Merril ; later adapted for television in Backstory featuring a satirical fake TV news story regarding the final depletion of the Amazon rain forest and game play take place in the year , in which a powerful alien attack force threatens to obliterate the Earth.
PlayStation 3 online game depicting a new world war 20 years after a meteor strike hits much of the Earth's surface. A fungal spore infection turns most of humanity into monsters and a small band of survivors try to live on. Novel by Sakyo Komatsu about a lethal supergerm that kills humanity in months; later adapted into a movie. The Diamond of Darkhold. The Prophet of Yonwood. The People of Sparks. The Last Book in the Universe. Louise Lawrence - A scientist uses a time machine to travel to the future and film the results of a nuclear war in a bid to prevent it from happening. However, his actions could have serious repercussions for the mutated descendants of the human race.
Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. Frederik Pohl under the pseudonym James MacCreigh. The Skin of Our Teeth. Masamune Shirow - Japanese manga and subsequent anime adaptations. Yukito Kishiro - manga series containing post-apocalyptic elements and taking place in a highly futuristic dystopian world. Yukito Kishiro - a continuation of the former manga series containing the same elements as previous but goes into greater detail as to how the dystopia came about. A World of Women [12]. Beresford - A global plague has decimated England's male population and the once-predictable Gosling family is now free to fulfill its long-frustrated desires.
Jean-Baptiste Cousin de Grainville - regarded as the first story of modern speculative fiction to depict the end of the world [13]. Usune Masatosh i - ongoing manga series later adapted into an anime. Clamp - ongoing manga series. Song by the band Warrant on the Dog Eat Dog album; depicts an Earth devastated by war where life lives on only by artificial means. Arjen Anthony Lucassen - series of concept albums depicting the end of life on Earth in due to, among other factors, a catastrophic nuclear war. Edwin Muir - deals with society's regression to pre- Industrial Revolution conditions in the wake of a nuclear war.
Peter Porter - written in the style of a radio broadcast warning of an impending nuclear attack. Song adaptation of the above Porter poem, written and recorded by the Scottish post-punk group the Scars. With virtually all of humanity wiped out by a meteor strike, the game follows the exploits of an army of survivors, fighting bandit raiders and hostile armies across the planet's desolate remains. PC video game, from Pipeworks, set in the post-apocalyptic earth in which Earth has been destroyed by crystals. Novel series created by Mark Ellis , aka James Axler. John Christopher - novel series, made into a TV series in the '80s.
An alien alliance called the Covenant begin attacking human colonies in By , almost all of the human colonies are destroyed and the Covenant are attacking Earth. Crytek - A near future where an ancient alien spacecraft has been discovered beneath the ground on an island in the East Philippines sea. Fowler Wright - A huge flood devastates the world; only the English Midlands survive.
Children of Morrow and Treasures of Morrow. Hoover - set in California several centuries after pollution has all but wiped out the human race; published in and respectively. North America has retreated into hunter-gatherer societies and military kingdoms some years after an apocalyptic ice age. The Mara and Dann novels. Doris Lessing - Mara and Dann , and sequel: Other Lessing novels like Memoirs of a Survivor and Shikasta deal with apocalyptic themes. The first book was originally published as two books, starting in An ancient whale species recreated through a genetic experiment turns out to have been telepathic, and the whales issue a telepathic call which cause most of humanity and other large land mammals to walk into the oceans and drown.
Nitrome Limited - flash game by about a character in a yellow hazmat suit attempting to free the world from a race of robots with a variety of bombs. A sequel, Toxic 2 , was released in Flight of the Conchords. Le Temps du Loup. Only the nobles possess futuristic ships, and the richest have domed cities where the debilitated earth can still support life. Wolves are proclaimed extinct, but found a way to enchant humans. Five wolves are on a quest to find 'Paradise', along with a Flower-Maiden, who was created from a Lunar Flower by a Noble.
A second apocalypse ends the series, with a presumable renewing of the planet. Four of the five characters are seen in the renewed world. Uses computer animation to simulate the sort of creatures that may evolve from present-day animals. In the world depicted in the series, the human race has left Earth to colonize the stars. The future descendants of humanity have sent probes back to Earth to record what has become of it.
The Book of the New Sun. Heinlein -human society on a future Earth is slipping into a gradual, but inevitable, collapse. Much to the dismay of the only male left, the women of the island continue the human species for thousands of years where they evolve into seal-like creatures. Planet of the Apes. Published between and The Dark Tower Series. First book published in To Serve The Master.
Created by Gene Roddenberry ; ran between and The British science-fiction sitcom ; first ran between and , was restarted in Against the Fall of Night. The City and the Stars. Dan Simmons - a sequel The Rise of Endymion. The Mote in God's Eye. Larry Niven , Jerry Pournelle. Manga by Yasuhiro Nightow , published between and David Drake , published between and Larry Niven - An expedition from earth to find a futuristic planet, a ring surrounding a star, results in the members finding that a meteor puncture in the ring's floor and power failure caused the cities to break apart and civilization to collapse.
Series by Douglas Hill - a lone soldier fights to bring down the organisation which unleashed a deadly radiation against his planet, killing all his people and rendering the planet uninhabitable. Stirling and David Drake , published between and Don McKellar - follows the lives of several individuals as they cope with their final six hours on Earth before the apparent incineration of the Earth by the sun the cause of the apocalypse is never directly stated. The Deconstruction of Falling Stars. The episode of Babylon 5 - written by J.
The End of the World. The episode of the television series Doctor Who. Songs of Distant Earth. Clarke - in which the last survivors of Earth arrive at a distant colony unexpectedly. Frank Lillie Pollock where a second sun's light incinerates the Earth. Limited series by Garth Ennis depicting the adventures of a man traveling on Earth's surface a few years after a solar event called The Burn.
Followed by a sequel, Just a Pilgrim: Film series based on the book series, concerning the Rapture. The manga and subsequent anime movies and TV series by Kia Asamiya - The story is set in a Blade Runner -style world which has been invaded by demonic beings. Season 4 and 5 are based around the pre-apocalyptic world in which the angels are gearing up for a battle between heaven and hell.
James Blish - a black magician brings about the end of the world by releasing all the demons from Hell. Brian Keene - And its sequel City of the Dead. Rather than the zombies being an infection, as in most zombie fiction; these zombies are reanimated by demonic entities, the sisquisim, from the Old Testament. Brian Keene - a Lovecraftian tale of one of the last survivors on earth. In the novel, the world floods causing several monsters appear, mainly gigantic, maneating earthworms. Garth Nix - A novel in which a group of extradimensional beings invade earth and cause all human adults over the age of 14 to vanish.
Dean Koontz - A novel in which a malevolent demonic force kills off the majority of the human race. The Shadow of Yesterday. The role-playing game, in which the unification of all people in a fantasy world under a single, supernatural language results in the destruction of a world by what is presumed to be an asteroid that becomes that world's new moon, one that eclipses the sun for a week out of each month.
A role-playing game, in which an advanced civilization is threatened and destroyed by supernatural forces that religion is knowingly, and in some ways unknowingly, centered on. The reasons for the Dayworld dystopia seems to be a combination involving overpopulation, ecological catastrophe, some sort of disaster that rendered petroleum unusable, and World War III. This is hinted at in the second book. Stirling - Ongoing series of novels and short stories. A disaster of indeterminate cause most speculation within the novels concerns an all-powerful outside force, often facetiously referred to as " Alien space bats " causes electricity, combustion engines, and modern explosives to cease functioning.
A series of novels set in a world created by Storm Constantine - humanity is replaced as the planet's dominant species by a race of mystic hermaphrodites. War and plague ravage the human population, but no single cause is specified. Ongoing comic series, which takes place roughly years in the future, where North America is a dustbowl and lacking modern technology. The Last Man [14]. The Book of Machines. The novel Erewhon ' s section The Book of Machines.
Richard Jefferies - the nature of the catastrophe is never stated, except that apparently most of the human race quickly dies out, leaving England to revert to nature. Wells - Towards the end of the book The Time Traveler witnesses the Suns expansion, causing the death of all life on Earth. The War of the Worlds. Shiel - A volcanic eruption floods the world with cyanide gas. Forster - A short story emphasizing machinery instead of computers.
Jack London - Sixty years after an uncontrollable epidemic, the Red Death, has depopulated the planet, James Howard Smith tries to impart the value of knowledge and wisdom to his grandsons. William Hope Hodgson - the Sun burns out and the last of humanity is sheltered in an arcology from the hostile environment and the creatures adapted for it. George Allan England - two characters wake from suspended animation and find that some great disaster has torn an enormous chasm in the Earth and created a second moon.
- List of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction;
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Play by Karel Capek - notable for coining the term ' robot '. The War of the Giants. The Shape of Things to Come. Filmed as Things to Come in Only a group of children survives and forms a strange new humanity. Things to Come [17]. A future second world war leads to a breakdown of civilization in most of the world, with technology returning to medieval levels by By the Waters of Babylon.
Philip George Chadwick, when a near-invincible army of artificially created soldiers - the flesh guard - falls into the hands of an untrustworthy power, continental Europe forms an alliance and invades Britain. The resulting carnage, involving poisonous electric gas, "humanite" atomic bombs, and the unfeeling march of the Flesh Guard, reduces whole cities and towns in Europe to smoking rubble. A cartoon short by Hugh Harman - animals rebuild a post-apocalyptic world after humanity has fought wars to the point of extinction.
Pat Frank - Depicts a world in which a nuclear power plant explosion renders the entire male population infertile. Not with a Bang. Asimov, Isaac - a later book, Robots and Empire gave a different explanation. There Will Come Soft Rains. Ray Bradbury in The Martian Chronicles. Arch Oboler - the film shows the aftermath of a nuclear war, centered on a group of five survivors. Ray Bradbury - short story in The Illustrated Man. When Worlds Collide film. The Day of the Triffids.
John Wyndham - Initially thought to be a blinding meteor shower, but later suggested to be a manmade satellite based weapon accidentally discharged, allowing the bioengineered Triffid plants to dominate. A new primitive society emerges long after a nuclear war. Invasion USA [ citation needed ]. Star Man's Son [14]. Norton, Andre Also published as Daybreak: Daphne du Maurier - survival horror.
The short story The Birds by Daphne du Maurier - made into the film The Birds by Alfred Hitchcock - in which birds begin launching spontaneous mass attacks against humanity. Gerald Heard ; a mildrew-generated fog appears to undermine civilization. The Nine Billion Names of God. Clarke - A short story taken from the short story collection of the same name. Wylie, Philip - Cautionary for its time , civil defense -themed "tale of two cities": Some Will Not Die.
Slaves To The Metal Horde. The Last of the Masters. Dick - short story novelette by Dick, Philip K. Elsewhere, the last government, a highly centralized and efficient society, is in hiding from the Anarchist League, a global militia preventing the recreation of any government. Day the World Ended [19]. John Wyndham - U. The aftermath of a nuclear war in a rural Canadian community. The Long Tomorrow [28]. Brackett, Leigh - in the aftermath of a nuclear war scientific knowledge is feared and restricted.
World Without End [22]. Edward Bernd, starring Hugh Marlowe , Rod Taylor - Robust 20th Century men—narrowly escaping the ubiquitous "time warp"—kill giant spiders, help pale nerds and their beautiful women emerge from underground, and retake the post World War III surface from troglodyte mutants. Fritz Leiber - A small family struggles to survive at near-zero temperatures after Earth is ripped from its solar orbit. Invasion of the Body Snatchers. John Christopher - A virus that destroys plants causes massive famine and the breakdown of society.
Made into the film No Blade of Grass. Nevil Shute - also the films based on the book. Rand, Ayn - American society slowly collapses after the country's leading industrialists mysteriously disappear. Teenage Cave Man [19]. Jones , The world's machinery grinds to a halt after comet dust arrives. Terror from the Year A made-for-television play by J. Several of the issues brought up in the programme were discussed in an hour-long debate following its conclusion. A group of survivors from an atomic war become trapped in an underground station - During the play, broadcast live on Armchair Theatre , one of the actors Gareth Jones actually died whilst the show was on the air.
George, Peter - filmed as Dr. Strangelove by Stanley Kubrick. The poem from Collected Poems — by George Macbeth. On the Beach [33]. The World, the Flesh and the Devil [19]. Shiel 's The Purple Cloud. A TV adaptation of a play by Marghanita Laski. Pat Frank - the aftermath of a nuclear war in a rural Florida community.
The Twilight Zone - numerous episodes, and its revivals. Atomic War Bride [ citation needed ]. A Yugoslav science fiction drama film directed by Veljko Bulajic. Shigeaki Hidaka, a Japanese film about a third world war started when the US accidentally drops a nuclear bomb on South Korea Japanese title: Yonju-ichi jikan no kyofu. The Time Machine [22].
A Canticle for Leibowitz. Miller, Jr, Walter M. Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman. The Last Woman on Earth. The Earth's oxygen levels drop suddenly, suffocating most life—survivors in an oxygen-producing jungle speculate that this happened because of "a bigger and better bomb" but the reasons are not made clear. Beyond the Time Barrier. Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. Ballard - First published novel. World destroyed by increasingly powerful winds. Panic in Year Zero! A movie about a family that escapes Los Angeles after the city is devastated by a nuclear attack.
This Is Not a Test. Loosely based on the John Wyndham novel of the same name. The film Triffids are a venomous space-borne plant, and arrive on Earth via meteorites. Brian Aldiss - Presents a dying Earth where vegetation dominates and animal life is all but extinct. Ballard - Climate change causes flooding. Anthony Burgess - Global over-population and famine leads to mass chaos. John Christopher - A decrease in radiation from the sun causes a new ice age. Comic books series by Gold Key Comics. Novel by Austrian writer Marlen Haushofer. Adapted to film in by the same name. A forty-something woman while vacationing in a hunting lodge in the Austrian mountains discovers that a transparent wall has been placed that closes her off from the outside world; all life outside the wall appears to have died, possibly in a nuclear event.
War novel by Ralph Peters. Islamic extremists launch a series of dirty bomb attacks against the West, which results in a backlash against Muslims. A radical Christian government takes over the US and sends the Army, Marines, and a National Guard full of evangelicals to invade and retake a long-nuked Israel. The Last Man on Earth. The Time Travelers [ citation needed ]. The Dalek Invasion of Earth. The Doctor Who serial. Some examples from the relaunch are in Army of Ghosts and Doomsday , and in The Sound of Drums and Last of the Time Lords though it could be argued that only the Master is alien.
The Day the Earth Caught Fire. Ballard - A super drought evaporates all water on earth. Brian Aldiss - The human race becomes sterile. Time of the Great Freeze. Robert Silverberg - Another ice-age has engulfed the earth. A group from New York travels over the ice to London in the year Nuclear War Card Game.
Thomas Disch - Alien flora is seeded on Earth, and quickly comes to dominate all landmasses, threatening Human extinction. John Christopher - Civilization destroyed by massive worldwide earthquakes. Television adaptation of the Novel of the same name. Daleks - Invasion Earth AD. The jungle in Africa starts to crystallize all life and expands outward.
Harry Harrison - Made into the film Soylent Green directed by Richard Fleischer - showing a world where humanity had become massively overpopulated, and a vague ecological disaster is creating a growing dust bowl, and the entire economy is collapsing. Late August at the Hotel Ozone. Konec srpna v Hotelu Ozon [47] [48]. In the Year [ citation needed ]. Journey to the Center of Time [ citation needed ]. Kavan, Anna - earth threatened by Nuclear winter. Planet of the Apes [22]. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Dick - basis for the film Blade Runner. John Brunner - Set in a future of extreme over-population. The Bed Sitting Room [51]. Originally based on a play by Spike Milligan and John Antrobus. Roger Zelazny - made into a movie and a Hawkwind song Marco Ferreri Italian title: Il Seme dell'uomo [54]. Michael Moorcock - Set in a new ice age on earth. Beneath the Planet of the Apes [55]. The second film in the Planet of the Apes feature film series. Kir Bulychev - in Russian language. No Blade of Grass [56]. Based on the novel The Death of Grass.
Doctor Who serial Inferno in which attempts to tap the Earths core for power leads to a volcanic apocalypse. Glen and Randa [22]. The Omega Man [59]. Kit Pedler , Gerry Davis. A microbe designed to eat waste plastic gets loose. Directorial debut for Douglas Trumbull. An ecologically-minded astronaut struggles to save the last bio-dome preserving what's left of Earth's wildlife. Adventures with uncooperative droids and the rings of Saturn ensue. John Brunner - The United States is overwhelmed by environmental irresponsibility and authoritarianism.
The End Of The Dream. A Thief in the Night. In , a crew of space travelers tries to colonize Venus after Earth is destroyed by a " doomsday device ". Directed by Herbert J. Leder , Lee Sholem , and producer Harry Hope. Battle for the Planet of the Apes [ citation needed ]. The fifth movie in the Planet of the Apes feature film series. Refuge of Fear [ citation needed ]. El refugio del miedo [61].
Directed by Peter Fonda. A research team discover a way to travel into the future, and in doing so discover that a worldwide ecological catastrophe is imminent. They send a group of earnest teenagers forward in time to repopulate the Earth after the disaster - but it doesn't end well. Flight of the Horse. A manga series by Go Nagai that tells the tale of a Japan devastated by a massive earthquake and mass volcanic eruption and isolated from the rest of the world, with the remnants of humanity divided between the strong and the weak.
A sequel to Nagai's Devilman series. Stephen King - An unknown phenomenon makes Earth's machines turn against humanity. It was later made into the movie Maximum Overdrive , which added an alien invasion subplot. The Camp of the Saints. Swiss film, French title: Made for TV movie. A mutated virus created by a solar flare destroys virtually all of the human population. One family has survived, and endeavors to travel across America to their family home. James Herbert - The last two novels of The Rats trilogy show how after a nuclear war, humanity is overthrown by mutated Giant Black Rats.
A Boy and His Dog [22]. A young man Don Johnson and his dog Tiger, the dog actor struggle for survival and encounter strife in a harsh, post-apocalyptic wasteland where food, water, and women are scarce. Based on the writings of Harlan Ellison. Black Moon [ citation needed ]. The Noah [ citation needed ]. Daniel Bourla - An American soldier becomes the sole survivor of a nuclear war.
A Doctor Who story that also features alien invasion. Guerrillas from the future explain that they are attempting to kill someone because he caused an explosion at the peace conference, starting a series of wars that left humanity vulnerable to Dalek conquest. Return to the Planet of the Apes. The Coming of the Horseclans. Robert Adams - followed by seventeen other books in the horseclans series. Series by Robert Adams - first book The Girl Who Owned a City.
Society is chased into domes by an ecological disaster, and holds a ceremonial death ritual for all citizens who reach the age of 30 to control the population. A man who formerly helped control the population flees the domed city to avoid his own ceremony.
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BBC series about the daily struggles of British survivors of a plague which kills most of the world population. The People Who Own the Dark [ citation needed ]. Amando de Ossorio Spanish title: Dick - in collaboration with Roger Zelazny. Eckert - The stability of the Earth comes into question. The Winter of the World. Poul Anderson - Civilization and a new species has emerged from a deadly Ice Age that has destroyed all previous life.
Ralph Bakshi - A good wizard and his evil brother battle some two millennia after Armageddon. Larry Niven , Jerry Pournelle - A comet impact. John Christopher - A virus wipes out the weak and the old, until the planet is populated by young teenagers only. Heine - The planet is decimated by a virus, as told through the eyes of one survivor.
In her view, Buck delves deeply into the lives of the Chinese poor and opposed "religious fundamentalism, racial prejudice, gender oppression, sexual repression, and discrimination against the disabled. Buck wrote the novel in Nanjing, spending mornings in the attic of her university house to complete the manuscript in one year ca.
It disappeared after the exhibit, and in a memoir , Buck is said to have written, "The devil has it. I simply cannot remember what I did with that manuscript. The FBI were notified and it was handed over by the consignor. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. For other uses, see The Good Earth disambiguation. The New York Times. Life Magazine , 14 August Chosen in collaboration with the magazine's editors. Buck's The Good Earth at a Glance". Norton, , p. Journey to The Good Earth". Cambridge University Press, Buck writings turn up four decades later". The Morning Call Lehigh Valley.
Retrieved 8 October Buck's Missing Manuscript Recovered". Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. The Exile Fighting Angel Buck Birthplace Green Hills Farm. Absalom Sydenstricker father John Lossing Buck husband. Retrieved from " https: Views Read Edit View history. This page was last edited on 4 December , at