Julius Caesar and the foundation of the Roman imperial system . nly part which he took in the siegewas to receive the final submission of the town, andto leave it unharmed, as a tribute rather to its an-• cient renown than to any claim it had on himself. ^» But the reader of these two chapters can hardly failto be struck by two traits in Caesars character whichhave already been pointed out in the story of theGallic War : the scientific interest which he shows inall military operations, and the generous care withwhich he watched and recorded the independentefforts of his lieutenants, j Both the
Julius Caesar and the foundation of the Roman imperial system . nly part which he took in the siegewas to receive the final submission of the town, andto leave it unharmed, as a tribute rather to its an-• cient renown than to any claim it had on himself. ^» But the reader of these two chapters can hardly failto be struck by two traits in Caesars character whichhave already been pointed out in the story of theGallic War : the scientific interest which he shows inall military operations, and the generous care withwhich he watched and recorded the independentefforts of his lieutenants, j Both these traits are alsoexcellently illustrated in the last twenty-two chaptersof this same second book of the Civil Wars, in whichhe has told how the province of Africa was lost tohim this same summer by the rashness and inexperi-ence of Not a word of contempt or reproach *B. C, ii., 22. f Mommsen, R. H., iv., 393, takes a different and singular viewboth of Curio himself and his military ability. This view is notshared by Colonel Stoffel (vol. i., 312).. 49 ] Civil War ifi Italy and Spain. 279 escapes him ; Curio was his own choice as a general,and he doubtless felt the responsibility. But in thestory he brings out clearly the faults, both of charac-ter and conduct, which brought about the disaster,as a lesson to all students of the military art. TheCommentaries, let it be said once more, are notmerely political pamphlets, as some critics have per-suaded themselves ; they are the records of the workof a great soldier and his subordinates, prompted, in-deed, by a desire to have that work regarded by pos-terity as Caesar himself regarded it, but chiefly by ahalf unconscious recognition of the space it wouldbe entitled one day to occupy in the history of theworld. At Massilia he heard that he had been appointeddictator, with the immediate object of holding theconsular elections for the next year. Lepidus, whohad been left in command at Rome, could not legallypreside at t
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