unity of Rome over the shores
of the Mediterranean was at an end," and says that the first act of the
"new Mediterranean state" was "to atone for the two greatest outrages which
that urban community had perpetrated on civilization." This, however,
cannot be admitted. The sites of Caesar's colonies were selected for their
commercial value, and that the citizens of Rome should cease to be rulers
of the Mediterranean basin could never have entered into Caesar's mind. The
colonists were in many cases veterans who had served under Caesar, in
others members of the city proletariat. We possess the charter of the
colony planted at Urso in southern Spain under the name of _Colonia Julia
Genetiva Urbanorum_. Of the two latter titles, the first is derived from
the name of Venus Genetrix, the ancestress of the Julian house, the second
indicates that the colonists were drawn from the _plebs urbana_.
Accordingly, we find that free birth is not, as in Italy, a necessary
qualification for municipal office. By such foundations Caesar began the
extension to the provinces of that Roman civilization which the republic
had carried to the bounds of the Italian peninsula. Lack of time alone
prevented him from carrying into effect such projects as the piercing of
the Isthmus of Corinth, whose object was to promote trade and intercourse
throughout the Roman dominions, and we are told that at the time of his
death he was contemplating the extension of the empire to its natural
frontiers, and was about to engage in a war with Parthia with the object of
carrying Roman arms to the Euphrates. Above all, he was determined that the
empire should be governed in the true sense of the word and no longer
exploited by its rulers, and he kept a strict control over the _legati_,
who, under the form of military subordination, were responsible to him for
the administration of their provinces.

Caesar's writings are treated under LATIN LITERATURE. It is sufficient here
to say that of those preserved to us the [Sidenote: The Commentaries.]
seven books _Commentarii de bello Gallico_ appear to have been written in
51 B.C. and carry the narrative of the Gallic campaigns down to the close
of the previous year (the eighth book, written by A. Hirtius, is a
supplement relating the events of 51-50 B.C.), while the three books _De
bello civili_ record the struggle between Caesar and Pompey (49-48 B.C.).
Their veracity was impeached in ancient times by Asinius Pollio and ha