Note 559 — LIFE OF C. CÆSAR. (continued 2)

It broke out during his dictatorship. (Suetonius, Cæsar, c. 70; Dion Cassius, 42. c. 52.) The story is told very circumstantially by Appianus (Civil Wars, ii. 92). The soldiers demanded of Cæsar release from service (missio), and he granted it to them in a single word, Mitto. The soldiers having got what they asked for were no longer soldiers, but citizens; and Cæsar in the subsequent part of the conference properly addressed them as Quirites, just as Cicero addresses the Roman people by this name in one of his orations against Rullus. The soldiers at last prevailed on him to restore them to their former condition; and he set out with them for his African war. This affair is alluded to by Tacitus. (Annal. ii. 42; Lucanus, v. 357.)