Agriculture is the art of cultivating the ground, more especially with the plough and in large areas or fields, in order to raise grain and other crops for man and beast; including the art of preparing the soil, sowing and planting seeds, removing the crops, and also the raising and feeding of cattle or other live stock. This art is the basis of all other arts, and in all countries coeval with the first dawn of civilization. At how remote a period it must have been successfully practised in Egypt, Mesopotamia, and China we have no means of knowing, but archaeologists have found evidence of agriculture being practised around 7000 BC. Egypt was renowned as a corn country in the time of the Jewish patriarchs, who themselves were keepers of flocks and herds rather than tillers of the soil. Naturally very little is known of the methods and details of agriculture in early times, though field archaeologists at Butser Ancient Farm in Hampshire have been conducting experiments for some years.
Among the ancient Greeks the implements of agriculture were very few and simple. Hesiod, who wrote a poem on agriculture as early as the eighth century BC, mentions a plough consisting of three parts, the share-beam, the draught-pole, and the plough-tail, but antiquarians are not agreed as to its exact form. The ground received three ploughings, one in autumn, another in spring, and a third immediately before sowing the seed. Manures were applied, and the advantage of mixing soils, as sand with clay or clay with sand, was understood. Seed was sown by hand, and covered with a rake. Grain was reaped with a sickle, bound in sheaves, thrashed, then winnowed by wind, laid in chests, bins, or granaries, and taken out as wanted by the family, to be ground.
Agriculture was highly esteemed among the ancient Romans. Cato, the censor, who was celebrated as a statesman, orator, and general, derived his highest honours from having written a voluminous work on agriculture. In his Georgics Virgil has thought the subject of agriculture worthy of being treated in the most graceful and harmoniousverse. The Romans used a great many different implements of agriculture. The plough is represented by Cato as of two kinds, one for strong, the other for light soils. Yarro mentions one with two mould-boards, with which, he says, 'when they plough, after sowing the seed, they are said to ridge'. Pliny mentions a plough with one mould-board, and others with a coulter, of which he says there were many kinds. Fallowing was a practice rarely deviated from by the Romans. In most cases a fallow and a year's crop succeeded each other. Manure was collected from nearly or quite as many sources as have been resorted to by the moderns. Irrigation on a large scale was applied both to arable and grasslands.
The Romans introduced their agricultural knowledge among the Britons, though it is known that the Britons were already practising agriculture, and during the most flourishing period of the Roman occupation large quantities of corn were exported from Britain to the Continent. During the time that the Angles and Saxons were extending their conquests over the country agriculture may have been neglected; but afterwards it was practised with some success among the Anglo-Saxon population, especially, as was generally the case during the middle ages, on lands belonging to the church. Swine formed at this time a most important portion of the live stock, finding plenty of oak and beech mast to eat.
The feudal system introduced by the Normans, though beneficial in some respects as tending to ensure the personal security of individuals, operated powerfully against progress in agricultural improvements. War and the chase, the two ancient and deadliest foes of husbandry, formed the most prominent occupations of the Norman princes and nobles. Thriving villages and smiling fields were converted into deer forests, vexatious imposts were laid on the farmers, and the serfs had no interest in the cultivation of the soil. But the monks of every monastery retained such of their lands as they could most conveniently take charge of, and these they cultivated with great care, under their own inspection, and frequently with their own hands. The various operations of husbandry, such as manuring, ploughing, sowing, harrowing, reaping, thrashing, winnowing, etc, are incidentally mentioned by the writers of those days; but it is impossible to collect from them a definite account of the manner in which those operations were performed.
The first English treatise on husbandry and the best of the early works on the subject was published in the reign of Henry VIII in 1534, by Sir A Fitzherbert, judge of the Common Pleas. It is entitled the Book of Husbandry, and contains directions for draining, clearing, and inclosing a farm, for enriching the soil, and rendering it fit for tillage. Lime, marl, and fallowing are strongly recommended. The subject of agriculture attained some prominence during the reign of Elizabeth I. The principal writers of that period were Tusser, Googe, and Sir Hugh Platt. Tusser's Five Hundredth Points of Good Husbandry (first complete edition published in 1580) conveys much useful instruction in metre, but few works of this time contain much that is original or valuable.
The first half of the seventeenth century produced no systematic work on agriculture, though several on different branches of the subject. About 1645 the field cultivation of red clover was introduced into England, the merit of this improvement being due to Sir Richard Weston, author of a Discourse on the Husbandry of Brabant and Flanders. The Dutch had devoted much attention to the improvement of winter roots, and also to the cultivation of clover and other artificial grasses, and the farmers and proprietors of England soon saw the advantages to be derived from their introduction. The cultivation of clover soon spread, and Sir Richard Weston seems also to have introduced turnips. Potatoes had been introduced during the latter part of the sixteenth century, but were not for long in general cultivation. A number of writers on agriculture appeared in England during the Commonwealth, the most important works on the subject being Blythe's Improver Improved and Hartlib's Legacy. The former writer speaks of a rotation, or rather alternation of crops, and well knew the use of lime, as also of other manures. In the eighteenth century the first name of importance in British agriculture is that of Jethro Tull, a gentleman of Berkshire, who began to drillwheat and other crops about the year 1701, and whose Horse-hoeing Husbandry was published in 1731.
Jethro Tull was a great advocate of the system of sowing crops in rows or drills with an interval between every two or three rows wide enough to allow of ploughing or hoeing to be carried on. After the time of Jethro Tull's publication no great alteration in British agriculture took place, until Robert Bakewell and others effected some important improvements in the breeds of cattle, sheep, and swine, in the latter half of the eighteenth century. The raising and maintenance of live stock, especially of sheep, was a characteristic of English farming from a very early time, and for several centuries the country had almost a monopoly in the supply of wool. To Bakewell we owe the breed of Leicestersheep. By the end of the nineteenth century it was a common practice to alternate green crops with grain crops, instead of exhausting the land with a number of successive crops of corn. A well-known writer on agriculture at this period, and one who did a great deal of good in diffusing a knowledge of the subject, was Arthur Young.
Scotland was for a long time behind England in agricultural progress. Great progress was made during the eighteenth century, however, especially in the latter half of it, turnips being introduced as a field-crop, and new implements such as the swing-plough and the thrashing-machine coming into general use. The construction of good roads through the country also gave agriculture a great impulse. During the wars caused by the French revolution of 1795 to 1814 the high price of agricultural produce led to an extraordinary improvement in agriculture all over Britain. The establishment of the institution called the National Board of Agriculture was also of very great service to British husbandry at this period. Though a private association it was assisted by an annual parliamentary grant, and prizes were given by it for the encouragement of experiments and improvements in agriculture. It existed from 1793 to 1816.
Among other societies which have greatly furthered the progress of agriculture in Britain, the chief are the Royal Agricultural Society of England, established in 1838; the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, founded in 1783; and the Royal Agricultural Society of Ireland, instituted in 1841. The objects of these and similar societies were such as the following: to encourage the introduction of improvements in agriculture; to encourage the improvement of agricultural implements and farm buildings; the application of chemistry to agriculture; the destruction of insects injurious to vegetation; to promote the discovery and adoption of new varieties of grain, or other useful vegetables; to collect information regarding the management of woods, plantations, and fences; to improve the education of those supported by the cultivation of the soil; to improve the veterinary art; to improve the breeds of live stock, etc. Shows are held, at which prizes are distributed for live stock, implements, and farm produce.
Through the efforts of the above-mentioned and other societies, the investigations of scientific men, the general diffusion of knowledge among all classes, and the necessity of competing with producers in foreign countries, agriculture made vast strides in Britain during the nineteenth century. Among the chief improvements were deep ploughing and thoroughdraining By the introduction of new or improved implements the labour necessary to the carrying out of agricultural operations was greatly diminished, as by the steam thrashing-machine, the steam-plough, and the reaping-machine. The nineteenth century saw also the introduction of chemistry into agriculture in Britain. The organization of plants, the primary elements of which they are composed, the food on which they live, and the constituents of soils, were all investigated, and most important results obtained particularly with regard to manures and rotations. Artificial manures, in great variety to supply the elements wanted for plant growth, came into common use at the end of the nineteenth century, not only increasing the produce of lands previously cultivated, but extending the limits of cultivation itself. An improvement in all kinds of stock became more and more general, feeding was conducted on more scientific principles, and improved varieties of plants used as field crops were introduced at the same time. At the end of the nineteenth century was introduced the system of ensilage for preserving fodder in a green state. However, by the start of the 20th century writers were proclaiming that, chiefly owing to foreign competition, agriculture had become a very unprofitable industry in Britain.
It is only since the nineteenth century that much progress was made in perfecting implements and machinery for cultivating the soil, sowing seed, drilling, rolling, hoeing, reaping, digging, etc. The first application of steam to ploughing dates from 1770, when Richard Edgeworth took out a patent for a steam ploughing machine, but it was 1852 before such application proved of any economic value. As early as 1829 a reaping-machine was invented by the Reverend Mr. Bell of Carmylie, Forfarshire, which, in an improved form, was still in use at the start of the twentieth century when numerous mowing and reaping-machines of ingenious construction were also introduced, many of which not only cut down the grain, but also bind it up into sheaves. At the start of the twentieth century steam was extensively used as a motive power in thrashing, in chaff-cutting, turnip-slicing, and even in churning. Only to be replaced after the invention of the combustion engine with petrol-power. Mechanisation led to the enlargement of fields, with small fields being amalgamated by the destruction of separating hedgerows to enable mechanical tractors and other farm vehicles to operate efficiently. The effect upon wildlife in Britain was devastating, and public concern started to grow.
The Second World War revolutionized agriculture in Britain, and led to the development of intensive farming techniques known as 'factory farming' and new anonymous breeds of livestock being developed which mature very quickly. During the later half of the twentieth century the public in Britain rebelled against the inhumanity of intensive animal husbandry, typified by 'battery hens' in which thousands of hens are kept in individual tiny cages within massive warehouses, unable to stretch let alone move around, and free-range or more traditional animal husbandry started to reappear in commercial agriculture.
The twentieth century also saw the wide scale introduction of chemical fertilizers and insecticides, many of which were harmful to the consumers and from a public backlash emerged a return to traditional farming, known as organic farming. Research Agriculture
The Cato Street Conspiracy was a plot to murder British ministers in 1820. Arthur Thistlewood, who had already been mixed up with revolutionary projects, conceived a plan for assassinating Lord Castlereagh and his ministerial colleagues at a dinner in Grosvenor Square, London on February 23rd. Arms were collected in a hired rendezvous in the neighbouring Cato Street. The plot was discovered, and Thistlewood and his colleagues (Brunt, Davidson, Harrison, Ings, Monument, Tidd and Wilson) were arrested (Arthur Thistlewood escaped at the time, but was arrested the next day). All eight were sent to the Tower of London and Thistlewood and four others were hanged for high treason on May the 1st 1820. Research Cato Street Conspiracy
Albrecht von Haller was a Swiss physician and physiologist. He was born in 1708 at Bern and died in 1777. He studied medicine at Tubingen, and afterwards at Leyden under the famous Boerhaave. He became a public lecturer on anatomy at Bern, and afterwards physician to the hospital and principal librarian. In 1736 he was made professor of anatomy and surgery in the University of Gottingen. In 1747 his Primae Lineae Physiologiae appeared, and in 1757 his Elementa Physiologiae Corporis Humani. Amongst his other works are: Icones Anatomicae (1743), Bibliotheca Botanica (1771), Bibliotheca Anatomica (1774), .Bibliotheca Chirurgica (1774), Bibliotheca Medicinae Practicae (1776). He was ennobled by the Emperor Francis I, and became chief magistrate of Bern, to which he had retired in 1753. Albrecht von Haller had a considerable reputation as a poet. He also wrote three philosophical romances, Usong, Alfred the Great, and Fabius and Cato. Research Albrecht von Haller
Arthur Thistlewood was a British revolutionary. He was born in 1770 at Tupholme, Lincolnshire and died in 1820. After serving in the army abroad he returned to England, settled in London and joined other malcontents intent on revolution. In 1816 he was arrested for his part in an unsuccessful uprising, but was acquitted. Later he was imprisoned for challenging the home-secretary, Lord Sidmouth, to a duel. In 1820 he organised the Cato Street Conspiracy, was subsequently arrested, convicted and hanged for high-treason. Research Arthur Thistlewood
Carneades was an ancient Greek philosopher and the founder of the third or new academy. He is supposed to have been born in 213 BC and died in 129 BC. Carneades held that although man has no infallible criterion of truth, yet we infer appearances of truth, which, as far as the conduct of life goes, are a sufficient guide. Carneades, along with Diogenes and Critolaus, went as an envoy from the Athenians to Rome to beg the mitigation of a fine, and so captivated the Roman people by his eloquence, delivering the one day a harangue in praise of justice, and on the next proving it to be an odious institution, that Cato, alarmed at the effect of such clever sophistry, persuaded the senate to send the philosophers back without delay. Research Carneades
Cornelius Nepos was a Roman historian. He was probably the author of Vitae excellentium imperatorum, and of the lives of Atticus and Cato. Research Cornelius Nepos
George Cruikshank was an English artist. He was born in 1792 at London and died in 1878. He is remembered for his caricatures and book illustrations. His father, Isaac Cruikshank, was an engraver of theatrical portraits, prints for cheap books, and caricatures in the manner of Rowlandson and Gillray. From early childhood George Cruikshank was trained to assist in preparing his father's plates. The earliest of his drawings known is dated 1799, when he was only seven years of age, and when fifteen he was comparatively distinguished. His first occupation was designing illustrations for children's books and popular songs. He began early also as a political satirist, contributing plates regularly in 1811 to the Scourge, in 1814 illustrating Dr. Syntax's Life of Napoleon, and doing much work of the kind for Hone, the publisher. His best productions of this period are his drawings of the Cato Street Conspiracy and of the trial of Queen Caroline, the Political Showman, and the Political House that Jack Built.
In 1821 and the succeeding years appeared his illustrations of such popular books as Pierce Egan's Tom and Jerry; Maxwell's History of the Irish Rebellion, Grimm's Fairy Tales, Peter Schlemihl, Baron Munchhausen, Defoe's History of the Plague, Scott's Demonology and Witchcraft, the Ingoldsby Legends, etc, the artist showing especial excellence in ghostly and fairy subjects.
In 1837 he commenced in Bentley's Miscellany his famous series of etchings on steel illustrative of Dickens' Oliver Twist, followed two years later by those for Ainsworth's Jack Sheppard, and then by those for Windsor Castle and the Tower of London. Having connected himself with the temperance movement he produced the Bottle, a powerful and popular series of designs, but marking clearly the limits of his art. His temperance connection and his absurd claims to having suggested the idea of Dickens' Oliver Twist, undermined his artistic reputation.
Poorly paid for work by which others profited, he was latterly obliged to part with the vast collection of his works, and in 1866 50 pounds sterling a year was settled on him from the Royal Academy's Turner Annuities, He latterly turned his attention to oil-painting, his most noteworthy pictures being Tam o'Shanter, Disturbing a Congregation, and The Worship of Bacchus. Research George Cruikshank
Joseph Addison was educated at the Charterhouse, where he became acquainted with Richard Steele, and afterwards at Oxford. He held a fellowship from 1697 until 1711, and gained much praise for his Latin poetry and other contributions to classical literature. He secured as his earliest patron the poet Dryden, who inserted some of his verses in his Miscellanies in 1693. A translation of the fourth Georgic, with the exception of the story of Aristseus, by Addison, appeared in the same collection in 1694, and be subsequently translated for it two and a half books of Ovid. Dryden also prefixed his proseessay on Virgil's Georgics to his own translation of that poem, which appeared in 1697.
An early patron of his was Charles Montague, afterwards Earl of Halifax; another was LordSomers, who procured him a pension of 300 pounds a year to enable him to qualify for diplomatic employments by foreign travels. He spent from the autumn of 1699 to that of 1703 on the Continent, where he became acquainted with Malebranche, Boileau, etc. During his residence abroad his tragedy of Cato is supposed to have been written. During his journey across Mount Cents he wrote his Letter from Italy, esteemed the best of his poems, and in Germany his Dialogues on Medals, which was not published until after his death. His Remarks on Several Parts of Italy in the Years 1701-3 was published in 1705.
His political friends lost power on the death of William III, but The Campaign, a poem on the Battle of Blenheim, procured him an appointment as a commissioner of appeal on excise. In 1706 he received an under-secretaryship, in 1707 he accompanied Halifax on a mission to Hanover, in 1709 became secretary to the viceroy of Ireland, and keeper of the records. In 1708 he was elected member of parliament for Lostwithiel, a seat he exchanged in 1710 for Malmesbury, which place he continued to represent until his death.
From October, 1709, to January, 1711, he contributed 75 papers to the Tatler, either wholly by himself, or in conjunction with Richard Steele, thus founding the new literary school of the Essayists. For the Spectator netween the 2nd of January, 1711 and the 6th of December, 1712 he wrote 274 papers, all signed by one of the four letters C., L., I., O. His tragedy of Cato, produced in April, 1713, ran for twenty nights, and was translated into French, Italian, German, and Latin. His other contributions to periodicals included 51 papers to the Guardian between May and September, 1713, 24 papers to a revived Spectator conducted by Budgell, and two papers to Steele's Lover.
On the death of Queen Anne he successively became secretary to the lords justices, secretary to the Irish viceroy, and one of the lords commissioners of trade. He published the Freeholder from the 23rd of December, 1715 to the 9th of June, 1716, a political Spectator. In August, 1716, he married the Countess of Warwick, which marriage is said to have been uncomfortable. He retired from public life, in March, 1718 with a pension of 1500 pounds a year. He formed a close friendship with Jonathan Swift, and was chief of a distinguished literary circle. He had literary quarrels with Pope and Gay, the former of whom in revenge wrote the satire contained in his lines on Atticus in the epistle to Arbuthnot. He also had a paltry quarrel over politics with his ancient comrade Richard Steele.
His death tools place at Holland House, its cause being dropsy and asthma. He was buried in Westminster Abbey. Of his style as a writer so much has been said that nothing remains to say but to quote the dictum of Johnson, 'Whoever wishes to attain an English style, familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious, must give his days and nights to the volumes of Addison.' He had great conversational powers, and his intimates speak in the strongest terms of the enjoyment derived from his society, but he was extremely reserved before strangers. His Dialogues on Medals and Evidences of the Christian Religion were published posthumously in Tickell's collected edition of his works. Research Joseph Addison
Caius Julius (more popular known as Julius Caesar or Caesar) was a great Roman general, statesman, and historian. He was born in 100 BC and died in 44. He was the son of the praetor Caius Julius Caesar, and of Aurelia, a daughter of Aurelius Cotta. At the age of sixteen he lost his father, and shortly after he married Cornelia, the daughter of Lucius Cinna, the friend of Marius. This connection gave great offence to Sulla, the dictator, who proscribed him for refusing to put away his wife. His friends obtained his pardon with difficulty, and Caesar withdrew from Rome, and went to Asia, serving his first campaign under M. Minucius Thermus, the praetor in Asia.
On the death of Sulla, Caesar returned to Rome, where he distinguished himself as an orator. He afterwards visited Rhodes, when he was taken by pirates, and compelled to pay fifty talents for his release. To revenge himself, he fitted out some vessels at Miletus, overtook the pirates, made the greater number of them prisoners, and had them crucified before Pergamus. He now returned to Rome, where his eloquence and liberality made him very popular. He was pontifex maximus in 63 BC, praetor in 62 BC, and governor of Spain in 61 BC.
On his return to Rome, having united with Pompey and Marcus Crassus in the memorable coalition called 'the first triumvirate,' he became consul, and then obtained the government of Gaul with the command of four legions.
His military career was rapid and brilliant. He compelled the Helvetii, who had invaded Gaul, to retreat to their native country, subdued Ariovistus, who at the head of a German tribe had attempted to settle in the country of the AEdui, and conquered the Belgae. In nine years he reduced all Gaul, crossed the Rhine twice (in 55 BC and 53 BC), and twice passed over to Britain, defeated the gallant natives of this island in several battles, and compelled them to give him hostages.
The senate had continued his government in Gaul for another period of five years, while Pompey was to have the command of Spain, and Marcus Crassus that of Syria, Egypt, and Macedonia for five years also. But the death of Marcus Crassus in his campaign against the Parthians dissolved the triumvirate; and about the same time the friendship between Caesar and Pompey cooled. The senate, influenced by Pompey, ordered that Caesar should resign his offices and command within a certain time, or be proclaimed an enemy to the state, and appointed Pompey general of the army of the Republic. Upon this Csesar urged his soldiers to defend the honour of their leader, passed the Rubicon (in 49 BC), and made himself master of Italy without striking a blow, Pompey retiring into Greece. Caesar then levied an army with the treasures of the state, and hastened into Spain, which he reduced to submission without coming to a pitched battle with Pompey's generals.
He next conquered Massilia (now Marseilles), and returned to Rome, where he was appointed dictator. He then followed Pompey into Greece, and defeated him at Pharsalia, from which Pompey escaped only to be assassinated in Egypt. In Rome the senate and the people strove eagerly to gain the favour of the victor. They appointed him consul for five years, dictator for a year, and tribune of the people for life. When his dictatorship had expired he caused himself to be chosen consul again, and without changing the ancient forms of government, ruled with almost unlimited power. In 46 BC he crossed to Africa, defeated the Pompeians Scipio and Cato at Thapsus, and returning to Rome he was received with the most striking marks of honour. The term of his dictatorship was prolonged to ten years, the office of censor conferred on him alone; his person was declared inviolable, and his statue placed beside that of Jupiter in the capitol.
He soon after was honoured with four several triumphs, made perpetual dictator, and received the title of imperator with full powers of sovereignty. In February, 44, he declined the diadem which Antony publicly offered him, and next morning his statues were decked with diadems. His glory, however, was short lived, for a conspiracy was set on foot by his enemy Cassius, and joined by many of his own friends, including M. Brutus; and, notwithstanding dark hints had been given to him of his danger, he attended a meeting of the senate on 15th (ides) March, 44 BC, and fell beneath the daggers of the conspirators.
Of his writings, we still possess the history of his wars with the Gauls and with Pompey. Caesar was undoubtedly the foremost man of all this world, being great as a statesman, a general, an orator, a historian, and an architect and engineer, and his assassination was brought about more by jealousy and envy than by real patriotism. Research Julius Caesar
Marcus Porcius Cato (Cato the Censor) was a Roman soldier. He was born in 234 BC at Tusculum and died in 149 BC. He inherited from his father, a plebeian, a small estate in the territory of the Sabines, which he cultivated with his own hands. He served his first campaign, at the age of seventeen, under Fabius Maximus, was present at the siege of Capua in 214 BC; and five years after fought under the same commander at the siege of Tarentum.
After the war was ended he returned to his farm, but by the advice of Valerius Flaccus removed to Rome, where his forensic abilities had free scope. He rose rapidly, accompanied Scipio to Sicily as quaestor in 204 BC, became an aedile in 199, and in 198 was chosen praetor, and appointed to the province of Sardinia. Three years later he gained the consulship, and in 194 for his brilliant campaign in Spain obtained the honour of a triumph. In 191 he served as military tribune against Antiochus, and then, having abundantly proved his soldierly qualities, returned to Rome.
For some years he exercised a practical censorship, scrutinizing the characters of candidates for office, and denouncing false claims, peculations, etc. His election to the censorship in 184 set an official seal to his efforts, the unsparing severity of which has made his name proverbial. From that year until his death, in 149, he held no public office, though zealously continuing his unofficial labours for the state. His hostility to Carthage, the destruction of which he advocated in every speech made by him in the forum, was the most striking feature of his closing years. His incessant Delenda est Carthago (Carthage must be destroyed) did much to further the third Punic war. Of his works his De Re Rusfcica (On Rural Economy) alone survives, though there exist in quotation fragments of his history and speeches.
Marrcus Porcius Cato (Cato of Utica) was a Roman reformer. He was born in 95 BC and died in 46 BC. He formed an intimacy with the StoicAntipater of Tyre, and ever remained true to the principles of the Stoic philosophy. He distinguished himself as a volunteer in the war against Spartacus, served as military tribune in Macedonia in 67 BC, was made quaestor in 65 BC.
His rigorous reforms won him general respect, and in 63 BC he was chosen tribune of the people. During the troubles with CatilineCato gave Marcus Cicero important aid both by his eloquence and sagacity, and at the same time set himself to thwart the ambitious projects of Pompey, Caesar, and Marcus Crassus. Such success as he had, however, was only temporary, and he failed to prevent the formation of the triumvirate. To get rid of him they sent him to take possession of Cyprus, but, having successfully accomplished his mission, he returned, opposed the Tribonian law for conferring extraordinary powers on the triumvirs, and in 54 BC enforced, as praetor, an obnoxious law against bribery.
On the breach between Pompey and Caesar he threw in his lot with Pompey, and guarded the stores at Dyrrhachium, while Pompey pushed on to Pharsalia. After receiving news of Pompey's defeat he sailed to Cyrene and effected a junction with Metellus Scipio at TJtica, in 47 BC. He took command of that city, but its defence appearing hopeless after the defeat of Scipio at Thapsus, he determined on suicide, and after spending some time in the perusal of the Phaedo of Plato, stabbed himself with his sword. His wounds were bound up by his attendants, but he tore off the bandages and died. Research Marcus Cato
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
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