[1] A story is
suspicious which is first produced after twenty years in a moment of
political excitement. Caesar spoke of it with stern disgust. He replied to
Catullus with an invitation to dinner; otherwise he passed it over in
silence--the only answer which an honorable man could give. Suetonius
quotes a loose song sung by Caesar's soldiers at his triumph. We know in
what terms British sailors often speak of their favorite commanders.
Affection, when it expresses itself most emphatically, borrows the
language of its opposites. Who would dream of introducing into a serious
life of Nelson catches chanted in the forecastle of the "Victory"? But
which of the soldiers sang these verses? Does Suetonius mean that the army
sang them in chorus as they marched in procession? The very notion is
preposterous. It is proved that during Caesar's lifetime scandal was busy
with his name; and that it would be so busy, whether justified or not, is
certain from the nature of things. Cicero says that no public man in Rome
escaped from such imputations. He himself flung them broadcast, and they
were equally returned upon himself. The surprise is rather that Caesar's
name should have suffered so little, and that he should have been admitted
on reflection by Suetonius to have been comparatively free from the
abominable form of vice which was then so common.
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