n._ vi. 1, 31-4,
quotes passages imitated by Virgil. So, 'Furius in primo annali
"Interea Oceani linquens Aurora cubile."' (Cf. Virg. _Aen._ iv. 585.)

Bibaculus also wrote a prose work _Lucubrationes_. (Pliny _N.H._ xxiv.
praef.)

CAESAR.

(1) LIFE.

The main facts of C. Iulius Caesar's life are found in a compendious
form in the Life by Suetonius. The ancient authorities, who are
unanimous in stating that at the time of his death (15th March, B.C.
44) Caesar was in his fifty-sixth year (Sueton. _Iul._ 88, Appian
_B.C._ ii. 149, Plut. _Caes._ 69), must have placed his birth in B.C.
100. But if this date were correct Caesar must have held the various
magistracies two years before the legal time--a fact nowhere
mentioned, and in itself improbable; it is therefore natural to hold
that he was born in B.C. 102 (Mommsen, _R.H._ iv., p. 15, note). His
birthday was 12th July (Macrob. _Saturn._ i, 12, 34).

His father, C. Iulius Caesar, was praetor in B.C. 84, and died in the
same year; Aurelia, his mother, took great interest in his education
(Tac. _Dial._ 28). From the first Caesar was connected with the
leaders of the democratic party in the State. Marius, who had married
his father's sister Julia, conferred on him the office of _flamen
Dialis_ before he was sixteen years of age; and his first wife was
Cornelia, daughter of Cinna. His refusal to divorce her at the bidding
of Sulla drew down upon him the enmity of the dictator; and he fled in
disguise to the Sabine mountains, where he remained until Sulla
reluctantly consented to spare his life.

Caesar obtained his first experience of military service as a member
of the staff of M. Thermus, propraetor of Asia, who conferred on him
the _civica corona_ for saving the life of a fellow-soldier at the
siege of Mytilene. After serving for a short time under Servilius
Isauricus against the pirates in Cilicia, he returned to Rome on the
news of Sulla's death in 78, and in the following year commenced his
career as an orator with the prosecution of Cn. Cornelius Dolabella,
proconsul of Macedonia, for extortion.

Towards the end of that year Caesar left Rome for Rhodes--on his way
thither being captured by pirates near Miletus--and studied for a year
under the famous rhetorician Molo, taking part also in some operations
on the mainland against one of the officials of Mithradates. Having
been elected one of the _pontifices_ in the room of his uncle, C.
Aurelius Cotta, h