With history we are less careful or less charitable. An
accusation of immorality is accepted without examination when brought
against eminent persons who can no longer defend themselves, and to raise
a doubt of its truth passes as a sign of a weak understanding. So let it
be. It is certain that Caesar's contemporaries spread rumors of a variety
of intrigues, in which they said that he was concerned. It is probable
that some were well founded. It is possible that all were well founded.
But it is no less indubitable that they rest on evidence which is not
evidence at all, and that the most innocent intimacies would not have
escaped misrepresentation from the venomous tongues of Roman society.
Caesar comes into court with a fairer character than those whose virtues
are thought to overshadow him. Marriage, which under the ancient Romans
was the most sacred of ties, had become the lightest and the loosest.
Cicero divorced Tereutia when she was old and ill-tempered, and married a
young woman. Cato made over his Marcia, the mother of his children, to his
friend Hortensius, and took her back as a wealthy widow when Hortensius
died. Pompey put away his first wife at Sylla's bidding, and took a second
who was already the wife of another man. Caesar, when little more than a
boy, dared the Dictator's displeasure rather than condescend to a similar
compliance.
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