while he assigns to this a position
beside Marathon and Arbela and Tours and the Defeat of the Armada and
Waterloo and Gettysburg? What was at stake--that Caesar or Pompeius and
his satellites should rule the world? Infinitely more--the struggle
was for the very existence of civilization, to determine whether or
not the fabric of ordered society was to be flung back into chaos. The
Roman Republic had conquered the civilized world; it had thrown down
kings; it had destroyed the political existence of nations. What but
feebleness, corruption, decay, anarchy, disintegration, disruption,
recurring barbarism, had the oligarchs, for whom Pompeius was fighting
his battle, to put in the place of what the Republic had destroyed?
Could a Senate where almost every man had his price, where almost
every member looked on the provinces as a mere feeding ground for
personal enrichment--could such a body govern the world? Were not
German and Gaul ready to pluck this unsound organism called the
Republic limb from limb, and where was the reviving, regenerating
force that was to hold them back with an iron hand until a force
greater than that of the sword was ready to carry its evangel unto all
nations, Jew, Greek, Roman, barbarian,--bond and free? These were the
questions asked and answered on that ninth day of August, forty-nine
years, before the birth of a mightier than Pompeius Magnus or Julius
Caesar. And because men fought and agonized and died on those plains by
Pharsalus, the edict could go from Rome that all the world should be
taxed, and a naturalized Roman citizen could scorn the howls of the
provincial mobs, could mock at Sanhedrins seeking his blood, and cry:
_"Civis Romanus sum. Caesarem appello!"_

How long did the battle last? Drusus did not know. No one knew. He
flew at the heels of his general's charger, for where Caesar went there
the fight was thickest. He saw the Pompeian heavy infantry standing
stolidly in their ranks to receive the charge--a fatal blunder, that
lost them all the enthusiasm aggression engenders. The Caesarian
veterans would halt before closing in battle, draw breath, and dash
over the remaining interval with redoubled vigour. The Pompeians
received them manfully, sending back javelin for javelin; then the
short swords flashed from their scabbards, and man pressed against
man--staring into one another's face--seeking one another's blood;
striking, striking with one thought, hope, instinct--to stride ac