In person, he was tall, fair, gracile, and of limbs distinguished for
their elegant proportions. His eyes were black and piercing. These
circumstances continued to be long remembered, and no doubt were
constantly recalled to the eyes of all persons in the imperial palaces
by pictures, busts, and statues; for we find the same description of his
personal appearance three centuries afterwards in a work of the Emperor
Julian's. He was a most accomplished horseman, and a master
(_peritissimus_) in the use of arms. But, notwithstanding his skill and
horsemanship, it seems that, when he accompanied his army on marches, he
walked oftener than he rode; no doubt, with a view to the benefit of his
example, and to express that sympathy with his soldiers which gained him
their hearts so entirely. On other occasions, when travelling apart from
his army, he seems more frequently to have ridden in a carriage than on
horseback. His purpose, in this preference, must have been with a view
to the transport of luggage. The carriage which he generally used was a
_rheda_, a sort of gig, or rather curricle; for it was a _four_-wheeled
carriage, and adapted (as we find from the imperial regulations for the
public carriages, etc.) to the conveyance of about half a ton. The mere
personal baggage which Caesar carried with him was probably
considerable; for he was a man of elegant habits, and in all parts of
his life sedulously attentive to elegance of personal appearance. The
length of journeys which he accomplished within a given time appears
even to us at this day, and might well therefore appear to his
contemporaries, truly astonishing. A distance of one hundred miles was
no extraordinary day's journey for him in a _rheda_, such as we have
described it. So refined were his habits, and so constant his demand for
the luxurious accommodations of polished life as it then existed in
Rome, that he is said to have carried with him, as indispensable parts
of his personal baggage, the little ivory lozenges, squares and circles