His age is not exactly ascertained, but it
is past a doubt that he had not reached his twentieth year when he had the
hardihood to engage in a struggle with Sylla, then Dictator, and
exercising the immoderate powers of that office with the license and the
severity which history has made so memorable. He had neither any distinct
grounds of hope, nor any eminent example at that time, to countenance him
in this struggle--which yet he pushed on in the most uncompromising style,
and to the utmost verge of defiance. The subject of the contrast gives it
a further interest. It was the youthful wife of the youthful Caesar who
stood under the shadow of the great Dictator's displeasure; not
personally, but politically, on account of her connections: and her it
was, Cornelia, the daughter of a man who had been four times consul, that
Caesar was required to divorce: but he spurned the haughty mandate, and
carried his determination to a triumphant issue, notwithstanding his life
was at stake, and at one time saved only by shifting his place of
concealment every night; and this young lady it was who afterwards became
the mother of his only daughter.
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