No More Learning

Flavius proposed[1039]
to purchase and appropriate to Pompey’s veterans, for purposes of
colonisation, all the territory that had been declared public domain in
the year 521, and since sold; and to divide among the poor citizens the
_ager publicus_ of Volaterræ and Arretium, cities of Etruria, which had
been confiscated by Sylla, but not yet distributed. [1040] The expense
entailed by these measures was to be defrayed by five years’ revenue of
the conquered provinces. [1041] Cicero, who wished to gratify Pompey,
without damaging the interests of those he termed his rich
friends,[1042] proposed that the _ager publicus_ should be left intact,
but that other lands of equal value should be purchased. Nevertheless,
he was in favour of the establishment of colonies, though two years
before he had called the attention of his hearers to the danger of such
establishments; he was ready to admit that that dangerous populace,
those dregs of the city (_sentina urbis_), must be removed to a distance
from Rome, though in former days he had engaged that same populace to
remain in Rome, and enjoy their festivals, their games, and their
rights of suffrage. [1043] Finally, he proposed to buy private estates,
and leave the _ager publicus_ intact; whereas, in his speech against
Rullus, he had blamed the establishment of colonies on private estates
as a violation of all precedent. [1044] The eloquence of the orator,
which had been powerful enough to cause the rejection of the law of
Rullus, was unsuccessful in obtaining the adoption of that of Flavius;
it was attacked with such violence by the consul Metellus, that the
tribune caused him to be put in prison; but this act of severity having
met with a general disapproval, Pompey was alarmed at the scandal, and
bade Flavius set the consul at liberty, and abandoned the law. Sensitive
to so many insults, and seeing his prestige diminish, the conqueror of
Mithridates regretted that he had disbanded his army, and determined to
make common cause with Clodius, who then enjoyed an extraordinary
popularity. [1045]

About the same period, Metellus Nepos, who had returned a second time to
Italy with Pompey, was elected prætor, and obtained a law to abolish
tolls throughout Italy, the exaction of which had hitherto given rise to
loud complaints. This measure, which had probably been suggested by
Pompey and Cæsar, met with general approval; yet the Senate made an
unsuccessful attempt to have the name of the proposer erased from the
law: which shows, as Dio Cassius says, that that assembly accepted
nothing from its adversaries, not even an act of kindness. [1046]


[Sidenote: Destiny regulates Events. ]

X. Thus all the forces of society, paralysed by intestine divisions, and
powerless for good, appeared to revive only for the purpose of throwing
obstacles in its way. Military glory and eloquence, those two
instruments of Roman power, inspired only distrust and envy. The triumph
of the generals was regarded not so much as a success for the Republic
as a source of personal gratification. The gift of eloquence still
exercised its ancient empire, so long as the orator remained upon the
tribune; but scarcely had he stepped down before the impression he had
made was gone; the people remained indifferent to brilliant displays of
rhetoric that were employed to encourage selfish passions, and not to
defend, as heretofore, the great interests of the fatherland.

It is well worthy of our attention that, when destiny is driving a state
of things towards an aim, there is, by a law of fate, a concurrence of
all forces in the same direction. Thither tend alike the attacks and the
hopes of those who seek change; thither tend the fears and the
resistance of those who would put a stop to every movement. After the
death of Sylla, Cæsar was the only man who persevered in his endeavours
to raise the standard of Marius. Hence nothing more natural than that
his acts and speeches should bend in the same direction. But the fact on
which we ought to fix our attention is, the spectacle of the partisans
of resistance and the system of Sylla, the opponents of all innovation,
helping, unconsciously, the progress of the events which smoothed for
Cæsar the way to supreme power.

Pompey, the representative of the cause of the Senate, gives the hardest
blow to the ancient régime by re-establishing the tribuneship. The
popularity which his prodigious successes in the East had won for him,
had raised him above all others; by nature, as well as by his
antecedents, he leaned to the aristocratic party; the jealousy of the
nobles throws him into the popular party and into the arms of Cæsar.

The Senate, on its part, while professing to aim at the preservation of
all the old institutions intact, abandons them in the presence of
danger; through jealousy of Pompey, it leaves to the tribunes the
initiative in all laws of general interest; through fear of Catiline, it
lowers the barriers that had been raised between new men and the
consulship, and confers that office upon Cicero. In the trial of the
accomplices of Catiline, it violates both the forms of justice and the
chief safeguard of the liberty of the citizens, the right of appeal to
the people. Instead of remembering that the best policy in circumstances
of peril is to confer upon men of importance some brilliant mark of
acknowledgment for the services they have rendered to the State, either
in good or bad fortune; instead of following, after victory, the example
given after defeat by the ancient Senate, which thanked Varro because he
had not despaired of the Republic, the Senate shows itself ungrateful to
Pompey, gives him no credit for his moderation, and, when it can
compromise him, and even bind him by the bonds of gratitude, it meets
his most legitimate demands with a refusal, a refusal which will teach
generals to come, that, when they return to Rome, though they have
increased the territory of the Commonwealth, though they have doubled
the revenues of the Republic, if they disband their army, the approval
of their acts will be disputed, and an attempt made to bargain with
their soldiers for the reward due to their glorious labours.

Cicero himself, who is desirous of maintaining the old state of things,
undermines it by his language. In his speeches against Verres, he
denounces the venality of the Senate, and the extortions of which the
provinces complain; in others, he unveils in a most fearful manner the
corruption of morals, the traffic in offices, and the dearth of
patriotism among the upper classes; in pleading for the Manilian law, he
maintains that there is need of a strong power in the hands of one
individual to ensure order in Italy and glory abroad; and it is after he
has exhausted all the eloquence at his command in pointing out the
excess of the evil and the efficacy of the remedy, that he thinks it is
possible to stay the stream of public opinion by the chilling counsel of
immobility.

Cato declared that he was for no innovations whatever; yet he made them
more than ever indispensable by his own opposition. No less than Cicero,
he threw the blame on the vices of society; but whilst Cicero wavered
often through the natural fickleness of his mind, Cato, with the
systematic tenacity of a stoic, remained inflexible in the application
of absolute rules. He opposed everything, even schemes of the greatest
utility; and, standing in the way of all concession, rendered personal
animosities as hard to reconcile as political factions. He had separated
Pompey from the Senate by causing all his proposals to be rejected; he
had refused him his niece, notwithstanding the advantage for his party
of an alliance which would have impeded the designs of Cæsar. [1047]
Regardless of the political consequences of a system of extreme rigour,
he had caused Metellus to be deposed when he was tribune, and Cæsar when
he was prætor; he caused Clodius to be put upon his trial; he impeached
his judges, without any foresight of the fatal consequences of an
investigation which called in question the honour of an entire order.
This immoderate zeal had rendered the knights hostile to the Senate;
they became still more so by the opposition offered by Cato to the
reduction of the price of the farms of Asia. [1048] And thus Cicero,
seeing things in their true light, wrote as follows to Atticus: “With
the best intentions in the world, Cato is ruining us: he judges things
as if we were living in Plato’s Republic, while we are only the dregs of
Romulus. ”[1049]

Nothing, then, arrested the march of events; the party of resistance
hurried them forward more rapidly than any other. It was evident that
they progressed towards a revolution; and a revolution is like a river,
which overflows and inundates. Cæsar aimed at digging a bed for it.
Pompey, seated proudly at the helm, thought he could command the waves
that were sweeping him along. Cicero, always irresolute, at one moment
allowed himself to drift with the stream, at another thought himself
able to stem it with a fragile bark. Cato, immovable as a rock,
flattered himself that alone he could resist the irresistible stream
that was carrying away the old order of Roman society.




CHAPTER IV.

(693-695. )


[Sidenote: Cæsar Proprætor in Spain (693). ]

I. Whilst at Rome ancient reputations were sinking in struggles
destitute alike of greatness and patriotism, others, on the contrary,
were rising in the camps, through the lustre of military glory. Cæsar,
on quitting his prætorship, had gone to Ulterior Spain (_Hispania
Ulterior_), which had been assigned to him by lot. His creditors had
vainly attempted to retard his departure: he had had recourse to the
credit of Crassus, who had been his security for the sum of 830 talents
(nearly five millions of francs [£200,000]). [1050] He had not even
waited for the instructions of the Senate,[1051] which, indeed, could
not be ready for some time, as that body had deferred all affairs
concerning the consular provinces till after the trial of Clodius, which
was only terminated in April, 693. [1052] This eagerness to reach his
post could not therefore be caused by fear of fresh prosecutions, as has
been supposed; but its motive was the desire to carry assistance to the
allies, who were imploring the protection of the Romans against the
mountaineers of Lusitania. Always devoted without reserve to those whose
cause he espoused,[1053] he took with him into Spain his client
Masintha, a young African of high birth, whose cause he had recently
defended at Rome with extreme zeal, and whom he had concealed in his
house after his condemnation,[1054] to save him from the persecutions of
Juba, son of Hiempsal, king of Numidia.

It is related that, in crossing the Alps, Cæsar halted at a village, and
his officers asked him, jocularly, if he thought that even in that
remote place there were solicitations and rivalries for offices. He
answered, gravely, “I would rather be first among these savages than
second in Rome. ”[1055] This anecdote, which is more or less authentic,
is repeated as a proof of Cæsar’s ambition. Who doubts his ambition? The
important point to know is whether it were legitimate or not, and if it
were to be exercised for the salvation or the ruin of the Roman world.
After all, is it not more honourable to admit frankly the feelings which
animate us, than to conceal, as Pompey did, the ardour of desire under
the mask of disdain?

On his arrival in Spain, he promptly raised ten new cohorts, which,
joined to the twenty others already in the country, furnished him with
three legions, a force sufficient for the speedy pacification of the
province. [1056] Its tranquillity was incessantly disturbed by the
depredations of the inhabitants of Mount Herminium,[1057] who ravaged
the plain. He required them to establish themselves there, but they
refused. Cæsar then began a rough mountain war, and succeeded in
reducing them to submission. Terrified by this example, and dreading a
similar fate, the neighbouring tribes conveyed their families and their
most precious effects across the River Durius (_Douro_). The Roman
general hastened to profit by the opportunity, penetrated into the
valley of the Mondego to take possession of the abandoned towns, and
went in pursuit of the fugitives. The latter, on the point of being
overtaken, turned, and resolved to accept battle, driving their flocks
and herds before them, in the hope that, through this stratagem, the
Romans would leave their ranks in their eagerness to secure the booty,
and so be more easily overcome. But Cæsar was not the man to be caught
in this clumsy trap; he left the cattle, went straight at the enemy, and
routed them. Whilst occupied in the campaign in the north of Lusitania,
he learnt that in his rear the inhabitants of Mount Herminium had
revolted again with the design of closing the road by which he had come.
He then took another; but they made a further attempt to intercept his
passage by occupying the country between the Serra Albardos[1058] and
the sea. Defeated, and their retreat cut off, they were forced to fly in
the direction of the ocean, and took refuge in an island now called
_Peniche de Cima_, which, being no longer entirely separated from the
continent, has become a peninsula. It is situated about twenty-five
leagues from Lisbon. [1059] As Cæsar had no ships, he ordered rafts to
be constructed, on which some troops crossed. The rest thought that
they might venture through some shallows, which, at low tide, formed a
ford; but, desperately attacked by the enemy, they were, as they
retreated, engulphed by the rising tide. Publius Scævius, their chief,
was the only man who escaped, and he, notwithstanding his wounds,
succeeded in reaching the mainland by swimming. Subsequently, Cæsar
obtained some ships from Cadiz, crossed over to the island with his
army, and defeated the barbarians. Thence he sailed in the direction of
Brigantium (now _La Corogne_), the inhabitants of which, terrified at
the sight of the vessels, which were strange to them, surrendered
voluntarily. [1060] The whole of Lusitania became tributary to Rome.

Cæsar received from his soldiers the title of _Imperator_. When the news
of his successes reached Rome, the Senate decreed in his honour a
holiday,[1061] and granted him the right of a triumph on his return. The
expedition ended, the conqueror of the Lusitanians took in hand the
civil administration, and caused justice and concord to reign in his
province. He merited the gratitude of the Spaniards by suppressing the
tribute imposed by Metellus Pius during the war against Sertorius. [1062]
Above all, he applied himself to putting an end to the differences that
arose each day between debtors and creditors, by ordaining that the
former should devote, every year, two-thirds of their income to the
liquidation of their debts; a measure which, according to Plutarch,
brought him great honour. [1063] This measure was, in fact, an act which
tended to the preservation of property; it prevented the Roman usurers
from taking possession of a debtor’s entire capital to reimburse
themselves; and we shall see that Cæsar made it of general application
when he became dictator. [1064] Finally, having healed their dissensions,
he loaded the inhabitants of Cadiz with benefits, and left behind him
laws, the happy influence of which was felt for a long period. He
abolished among the people of Lusitania their barbarous customs, some of
which went as far as the sacrifice of human victims. [1065] It was there
that he became intimate with a man of consideration in Cadiz, L.
Cornelius Balbus, who became _magister fabrorum_ (chief engineer) during
his Gaulish wars, and who was defended by Cicero when his right of
Roman citizen was called in question. [1066]

Though he administered his province with the greatest equity, yet,
during his campaign, he had amassed a rich booty, which enabled him to
reward his soldiers, and to pay considerable sums into the treasury
without being accused of peculation or of arbitrary acts. His conduct as
prætor of Spain[1067] was praised by all, and among others by Mark
Antony, in a speech pronounced after Cæsar’s death.

It was not then, as Suetonius pretends, by the begging of
subsidies[1068] (for a general hardly begs at the head of an army), nor
was it by an abuse of power, that he amassed such enormous riches; he
obtained them by contributions of war, by a good administration, and
even by the gratitude of those whom he had governed.

[Illustration: IV MAP OF THE PENINSULA OF PENICHE. ]


[Sidenote: Cæsar demands a Triumph and the Consulship (694). ]

II. Cæsar returned to Rome towards the month of June[1069] without
waiting for the arrival of his successor. This return, which the
historians describe as hasty, was by no means so, since his regular
authority had expired in the month of January, 694. But he was
determined to be present at the approaching meeting of the consular
comitia; he presented himself with confidence, and whilst preparing for
his triumph, demanded at the same time permission to become a candidate
for the consulship. Invested with the title of _Imperator_, having, by a
rapid conquest, extended the limits of the empire to the northern shores
of the Ocean, he might justly aspire to this double distinction; but it
was granted with difficulty. To obtain a triumph, it was necessary to
remain without the walls of Rome, to retain the lictors and continue the
military uniform, and to wait till the Senate should fix the date of
entry. To solicit for the consulship, it was necessary, on the contrary,
to be present in Rome, clad in a white robe,[1070] the costume of those
who were candidates for public offices, and to reside there several days
previous to the election. The Senate had not always considered these two
demands incompatible:[1071] it would perhaps even have granted this
indulgence to Cæsar, had not Cato, by speaking till the end of the day,
rendered all deliberation impossible. [1072] He had not, however, been so
severe in 684; but it was because, on that occasion, Pompey was
triumphing in reality over Sertorius, that foe to the aristocracy,
though officially it was only talked of as a victory over the
Spaniards. [1073] Constrained to choose between an idle pageant and real
power, Cæsar did not hesitate.

The ground had been well prepared for his election. His popularity had
been steadily on the increase; and the Senate, too much elated by its
successes, had estranged those who possessed the greatest influence.
Pompey, discontented at the uniform refusals with which his just demands
had been met, knew well also that the recent law, declaring enemies of
the State those who bribed the electors, was a direct attack against
himself, since he had openly paid for the election of the consul
Afranius; but, always infatuated with his own personal attractions, he
consoled himself for his checks by strutting about in his gaudy
embroidered robe. [1074] Crassus, who had long remained faithful to the
aristocratic party, had become its enemy, on account of the
ill-disguised jealousy of the nobles towards him, and their intrigues to
implicate him with Cæsar in the conspiracy of Catiline. However, though
he held in his hands the strings of many an intrigue, he was fearful of
compromising himself, and shrank from _declaring in public against any
man in credit_. [1075] Lucullus, weary of warfare and of intestine
struggles, was withdrawing from politics in order to enjoy his vast
wealth in tranquillity. Catulus was dead, and the majority of the nobles
were ready to follow the impulse given them by certain enthusiastic
senators who, caring little about public affairs, thought themselves the
happiest of men if they had _in their fishponds carp sufficiently tamed
to come and eat out of their hands_. [1076] Cicero felt his own solitary
position. The nobles, whose angry feelings he had served, now that the
peril was over, regarded him as no better than an upstart. Therefore he
prudently changed his principles; he, the exterminator of conspirators,
had become the defender of P. Sylla, one of Catiline’s accomplices, and
procured his acquittal in the teeth of the evidence;[1077] he, the
energetic opponent of all partitions of land, had spoken in favour of
the agrarian law of Flavius. He wrote to Atticus, “I have seen that
those men whose happiness belongs to the passing hour, those illustrious
lovers of fishponds, are no longer able to conceal their jealousy of me;
so I have sought more solid support. ”[1078]

In a word, he had made overtures to Pompey, though in secret he admitted
that he possessed neither greatness of mind nor nobleness of heart. “He
only knows how to curry favour and flatter the people,” he said; “and
here am I bound to him on such terms that our interest, as individuals,
is served thereby; and, as statesmen, we can both act with greater
firmness. The ill-will of our ardent and unprincipled youth had been
excited against me. I have been so successful in bringing it round by my
address, that at present it cares for no one but me. Finally, I am
careful to wound no man’s feelings, and that without servileness or
popularity-hunting. My entire conduct is so well planned, that, as a
public man, I yield in nothing; and as a private individual, who knows
the weakness of honest men, the injustice of the envious, and the hatred
of the wicked, I take my precautions, and act with prudence. ”[1079]

Cicero deceived himself with regard to the causes of his change of
party, and did not acknowledge to himself the reasons that constrained
him to look out for powerful patrons. Like all men destitute of force of
character, instead of openly confessing the motives of his conduct, he
justified himself to his friends by pretending that, so far from having
altered his own opinions, it was he who was converting Pompey, and would
soon make the same experiment upon Cæsar. “You rally me pleasantly,” he
wrote to Atticus, “on the subject of my intimacy with Pompey; but do not
fancy that I have contracted it out of regard for my personal safety. It
is all the effect of circumstances. When there was the slightest
disagreement between us, there was trouble in the State. I have laid my
plans and made my conditions, so that, without laying aside my own
principles, which are good, I have led him to better sentiments. He is
somewhat cured of his madness for popularity. . . . If I am equally
successful with Cæsar, whose ship is now sailing under full canvas,
shall I have done great harm to the State? ”[1080] Cicero, like all men
whose strength lies in eloquence, felt that he could play no important
part, or even secure his own personal safety, unless he allied himself
with men of the sword.

Whilst at Rome the masters of the world were wasting their time in mean
quarrels, alarming news came suddenly to create a diversion in political
intrigue. Information was brought that the Gaulish allies on the banks
of the Saône had been defeated by the Germans, that the Helvetii were in
arms, and making raids beyond the frontiers. The terror was universal.
Fears were entertained of a fresh invasion of the Cimbri and Teutones;
and, as always happened on such occasions, a general levy, without
exception, was ordered. [1081] The consuls of the previous year drew lots
for their provinces, and it was decided to dispatch commissioners to
come to an understanding with the Gaulish tribes, with a view to resist
foreign invasions. The names of Pompey and Cicero were at once
pronounced; but the Senate, influenced by different motives, declared
that their presence was too necessary in Rome to allow them to be sent
away. They were unwilling to give the former an opportunity of again
distinguishing himself, or to deprive themselves of the concurrence of
the latter.


[Sidenote: Alliance of Cæsar, Pompey, and Crassus. ]

III. News of a more re-assuring character having been received from
Gaul, the fear of war ceased for a time, and things had returned to
their customary course when Cæsar came home from Spain. In the midst of
conflicting opinions and interests, the presence of a man of steady
purpose and deeply-rooted convictions, and illustrious through recent
victories, was, without any doubt, an event. He did not require long to
form his estimate of the situation; and, as he could not as yet unite
the masses by the realisation of a grand idea, he thought to unite the
chiefs by a common interest.

All his endeavours from that time were devoted to making Pompey,
Crassus, and Cicero share his ideas. The first had been rather ill
disposed towards him. On his return from his campaign against
Mithridates, Pompey had called Cæsar his Egistheus,[1082] in allusion to
the intrigue which he had had with his wife Mutia, whilst he, like
Agamemnon, was making war in Asia. Resentment, on this account, usually
slight enough among the Romans, soon disappeared before the exigencies
of political life. As for Crassus, who had long been separated from
Pompey by a jealous feeling of rivalry, it needed all Cæsar’s tact, and
all the seduction of his manners, to induce him to become reconciled
with his rival. But, to bring them both to follow the same line of
conduct, it was necessary, over and above this, to tempt them with such
powerful motives as would ensure conviction. The historians, in general,
have given no other reason to account for the agreement of these three
men than personal interest. Doubtless, Pompey and Crassus were not
insensible to a combination that favoured their love of power and
wealth; but we ought to lend Cæsar a more elevated motive, and suppose
him inspired by a genuine patriotism.

The condition of the Republic must have appeared thus to his
comprehensive grasp of thought:--The Roman dominion, stretched, like
some vast figure, across the world, clasps it in her sinewy arms; and
whilst her limbs are full of life and strength, the heart is wasting by
decay. Unless some heroic remedy be applied, the contagion will soon
spread from the centre to the extremities, and the mission of Rome will
remain unfinished! --Compare with the present the prosperous days of the
Republic. Recollect the time when envoys from foreign nations, doing
homage to the policy of the Senate, declared openly that they preferred
the protecting sovereignty of Rome to independence itself. Since that
period, what a change has taken place! All nations execrate the power of
Rome, and yet that power preserves them from still greater evils. Cicero
is right, “Let Asia think well of it: there is not one of the woes that
are bred of war and civil strife, that she would not experience did she
cease to live under our laws. ”[1083] And this advice may be applied to
all the countries whither the legions have penetrated. If, then, fate
has willed that the nations are to be subject to the sway of a single
people, it is the duty of that people, as charged with the execution of
the eternal decrees, to be, towards the vanquished, as just and
equitable as the Divinity, since he is as inexorable as destiny. How are
we to fix a limit to the arbitrary conduct of proconsuls and proprætors,
which all the laws promulgated for so many years have been powerless to
check? How put a stop to the exactions committed at all points of the
empire, if a firmer and stronger direction do not emanate from the
central power? --The Republic pursues an irregular system of
encroachment, which will exhaust its resources; it is impossible for her
to fight against all nations at once, and at the same time to maintain
her allies in their allegiance, if, by unjust treatment, they are driven
to revolt. The enemies of the Republic must be diminished in number by
restoring their freedom to the cities which are worthy of it,[1084] and
acknowledging as friends of the Roman people those nations with whom
there is a chance of living in peace. [1085] Our most dangerous enemies
are the Gauls, and it is against this turbulent and warlike nation that
all the strength of the State ought to be directed. --In Italy, and under
this name Cisalpine Gaul must be included, how many citizens are
deprived of political rights! At Rome, how many of the proletaries are
living on the charity either of the rich or of the State! Why should we
not extend the Roman commune as far as the Alps, and why not augment the
race of labourers and soldiers by making them landowners? The Roman
people must be raised in its own eyes, and the Republic in the eyes of
the world! --Absolute liberty of speech and of vote was a great benefit,
when, modified by morality, and restrained by a powerful aristocracy, it
gave scope to individual faculties without damaging the general
well-being; but, ever since the morality of ancient days disappeared
with the aristocracy, we have seen the laws become weapons of war for
the use of parties, the elections a traffic, the forum a battle-field;
while liberty is nothing more than a never-ending cause of weakness and
decay. --Our institutions cause such uncertainty in our councils, and
such independence in our offices of State, that we search in vain for
that spirit of order and control which are indispensable elements in the
maintenance of so vast an empire. Without overthrowing institutions
which have given five centuries of glory to the Republic, it is
possible, by a close union of the most worthy citizens, to establish in
the State a moral authority, which governs the passions, tempers the
laws, gives a greater stability to power, directs the elections,
maintains the representatives of the Roman people in their duty, and
frees us from the two most serious dangers of the present: the
selfishness of the nobles and the turbulence of the mob. This is what
they may realise by their union; their disunion, on the contrary, will
only encourage the fatal conduct of these men who are endangering the
future equally, some by their opposition, the others by their headlong
violence.

These considerations must have been easily understood by Pompey and
Crassus, who had themselves been actors in such great events, witnesses
of so much blood shed in civil wars, of so many noble ideas, triumphing
at one moment and overthrown the next. They accepted Cæsar’s proposal,
and thus was concluded an alliance which is wrongly termed the First
Triumvirate. [1086] As for Cicero, Cæsar tried to persuade him to join
the compact which had just been formed, but he refused to become one of
what he termed a party of friends. [1087] Always uncertain in his
conduct, always divided between his admiration for those who held the
sovereign power, and his engagements with the oligarchy, and uneasy for
the future which his foresight could not penetrate, he set his mind to
work to prevent the success of every measure which he approved as soon
as it had succeeded. The alliance which these three persons ratified by
their oaths,[1088] remained long a secret; and it was only during
Cæsar’s consulship that it became matter of public notoriety from the
unanimity they displayed in all their political resolutions. Cæsar,
then, set energetically to work to unite in his own favour every chance
that could render his election certain.


[Sidenote: Cæsar’s Election. ]

IV. Among the candidates was L. Lucceius. Cæsar was desirous of
attaching to his cause this person, who was distinguished alike by his
writings and his character,[1089] and who, possessed of vast wealth, had
promised to make abundant use of it for their common profit, in order to
command the majority of votes in the centuries. “The aristocratic
faction,” says Suetonius, “on learning this arrangement, was seized with
fear. They thought that there was nothing which Cæsar would not attempt
in the exercise of the sovereign magistracy, if he had a colleague who
agreed with him, and who would support all his designs. ”[1090] The
nobles, unable to eject him, resolved to give him Bibulus for a
colleague, who had already been his colleague in the edileship and the
prætorship, and had constantly shown himself his opponent. They all made
a pecuniary contribution to influence the elections; Bibulus spent large
sums,[1091] and the incorruptible Cato himself, who had solemnly sworn
to impeach any one who should be guilty of bribery, contributed his
quota, owning that for the interest of the State his principles must for
once yield. [1092] Neither was Cicero more inflexible: some time before,
he expressed to Atticus the necessity of purchasing the concurrence of
the equestrian order. [1093] We can see how even the most honourable were
swept along, by the force of events, in the current of a corrupt
society.

By the force of public opinion, and by the support of the two men of
greatest influence, Cæsar was elected consul unanimously, and conducted,
according to custom, from the Campus Martius to his own house by an
enthusiastic crowd of his fellow-citizens, and a vast number of
senators. [1094]

If the party opposed to Cæsar had been unable to stand in the way of his
becoming consul, it did not despair of preventing his playing the
important part he had a right to expect as proconsul. To effect this,
the Senate determined to evade the law of Caius Gracchus, which, to
prevent the assignment of provinces from personal considerations,
provided that it should take place before the comitia were held. The
assembly, therefore, departing from the rule, assigned to Cæsar and his
colleague, by an act of flagrant ill-will, the supervision of the public
roads and forests; an office somewhat similar, it is true, to that of
governor of a province. [1095] This humiliating appointment, proof as it
was of a persevering hostility, wounded him deeply; but the duties of
his new office imposed silence upon his resentments. Cæsar the consul
would forget the wrongs done to Cæsar the man, and generously attempt a
policy of conciliation.




CHAPTER V.

CONSULSHIP OF CÆSAR AND BIBULUS.

(695. )


[Sidenote: Attempts at Conciliation. ]

I. Cæsar has arrived at the first magistracy of the Republic.
Consul
with Bibulus at the age of forty-one, he has not yet acquired the just
celebrity of Pompey, nor does he enjoy the treasures of Crassus, and yet
his influence is perhaps greater than that of those two personages.
Political influence, indeed, does not depend solely on military
successes or on the possession of immense riches; it is acquired
especially by a conduct always in accord with fixed convictions. Cæsar
alone represents a principle. From the age of eighteen, he has faced the
anger of Sylla and the hostility of the aristocracy, in order to plead
unceasingly the grievances of the oppressed and the rights of the
provinces.

So long as he is not in power, being exempt from responsibility, he
walks invariably in the way he has traced, listens to no compromise,
pursues unsparingly the adherents of the opposite party, and maintains
his opinions energetically, at the risk of wounding his adversaries;
but, once consul, he lays aside all resentment, and makes a loyal appeal
to all who will rally round him; he declares to the Senate that he will
not act without its concurrence, that he will propose nothing contrary
to its prerogatives. [1096] He offers his colleague Bibulus a generous
reconciliation, conjuring him, in the presence of the senators, to put a
term to differences of opinion, the effects of which, already so much to
be regretted during their common edileship and prætorship, would become
fatal in their new position. [1097] He makes advances to Cicero, and,
after sending Cornelius Balbus to him in his villa of Antium to assure
him that he is ready to follow his counsels and those of Pompey, offers
to take him as an associate in his labours. [1098]

Cæsar must have believed that these offers of co-operation would be
embraced. In face of the perils of a society deeply agitated, he
supposed that others had the same sentiments which animated himself.
Love of the public good, and the consciousness of having entirely
devoted himself to it, gave him that confidence without reserve in the
patriotism of others which admits neither mean rivalries nor the
calculations of selfishness: he was deceived. The Senate showed nothing
but prejudices, Bibulus, but rancours, Cicero, but a false pride.

It was essential for Cæsar to unite Pompey, who was wanting in firmness
of character, more closely with his destinies; he gave him in marriage
his daughter Julia, a young woman of twenty-three years of age, richly
endowed with graces and intelligence, who had already been affianced to
Servilius Cæpio. To compensate the latter, Pompey promised him his own
daughter, though she also was engaged to another, to Faustus, the son of
Sylla. Soon afterwards Cæsar espoused Calpurnia, the daughter of Lucius
Piso. [1099] Cato protested energetically against these marriages, which
he qualified as disgraceful traffics with the common weal. [1100] The
nobles, and especially the two Curios, made themselves the echoes of
this reprobation. Their party, nevertheless, did not neglect to
strengthen themselves by such alliances. Doubtless, when Cato gave his
daughter to Bibulus, it was for a political motive; and when he ceded
his own wife to Hortensius,[1101] although the mother of three children,
to take her back again when enriched by the death of her last husband,
there was also an interest hardly honourable, which Cæsar subsequently
unveiled in a book entitled _Anti-Cato_. [1102]

The first care of the new consul was to establish the practice of
publishing daily the acts of the Senate and those of the people, in
order that public opinion might bear with all its weight upon the
resolutions of the conscript fathers, whose deliberations had previously
been often secret. [1103] The initiative taken by Cæsar from the
commencement of his consulship, in questioning the senators on the
projects of laws, is an evidence that he had the fasces before Bibulus.
We know, in fact, that the consuls enjoyed this honour alternately for a
month, and it was in the period when they were invested with the signs
distinctive of power that they were permitted to ask the advice of the
senators. [1104]


[Sidenote: Agrarian Laws. ]

II. He proposed next, in the month of January, an agrarian law founded
upon wise principles, and which respected all legitimate rights. The
following were its principal provisions:--

Partition of all the free part of the _ager publicus_, except that of
Campania and that of Volaterræ; the first excepted originally on account
of its great fertility,[1105] and the second guaranteed to all those who
had got it into their possession. [1106]--In case of insufficiency of
territory, new acquisitions, by means either of money coming from
Pompey’s conquests, or from the overplus of the public
revenues. --Prohibition of all appropriation by force. --The nomination of
twenty commissioners to preside at the distribution of the lands, with
exclusion of the author of the proposal. --Estimate of private lands for
sale, made according to the declaration at the last census, and not
according to the valuation of the commissioners. --Obligation upon each
senator to swear obedience to the law, and to engage never to propose
anything contrary to it.

It was, as may be seen, the project of Rullus, relieved from the
inconveniences pointed out with so much eloquence by Cicero. In fact,
instead of ten commissioners, Cæsar proposed twenty, in order to
distribute among a greater number a power of which men feared the abuse.
He himself, to avoid all suspicion of personal interest, excluded
himself from the possibility of forming part of it. The commissioners
were not, as in the law of Rullus, authorised to act according to their
will, and tax the properties arbitrarily. Acquired rights were
respected; those territories only were distributed of which the State
had still the full disposal. The sums arising from Pompey’s conquests
were to be employed in favour of the old soldiers; and Cæsar said
himself that it was just to give the profit of that money to those who
had gained it at the peril of their lives. [1107] As to the obligation of
the oath imposed upon the senators, it was not an innovation, but an
established custom. In the present case, the law having been voted
before the elections, all the candidates, and especially the tribunes of
the following year, had to take the engagement to observe it. [1108]

“Nobody,” says Dio Cassius,[1109] “had reason for complaint on this
subject. The population of Rome, the excessive increase of which had
been the principal aliment of seditions, was called to labour and a
country life; the greater part of the countries of Italy, which had lost
their inhabitants, were re-peopled. This law insured means of existence
not only to those who had supported the fatigues of the war, but also to
all the other citizens, without causing expenditure to the State or
loss to the nobles; on the contrary, it gave to several honours and
power. ”

Thus, while some historians accuse Cæsar of seeking in the populace of
Rome the point of support for his ambitious designs, he, on the
contrary, obtains a measure, the effect of which is to transport the
turbulent part of the inhabitants of the capital into the country.

Cæsar, then, read his project to the Senate; after which, calling the
senators by their names, one after the other, he asked the opinion of
each, declaring his readiness to modify the law, or withdraw it
altogether, if it were not agreeable to them. But, according to Dio
Cassius, “It was unassailable, and, if any disapproved of it, none dared
to oppose it; what afflicted its opponents most was, that it was drawn
up in such a manner as to leave no room for a complaint. ”[1110] So the
opposition was limited to adjourning from time to time, under frivolous
pretexts. Cato, without making a direct opposition, alleged the
necessity of changing nothing in the constitution of the Republic, and
declared himself the adversary of all kind of innovation; but, when the
moment came for voting, he had recourse again to his old tactics, and
rendered all deliberation impossible by speaking the entire day, by
which he had already succeeded in depriving Cæsar of the triumph. [1111]
The latter lost patience, and sent the obstinate orator to prison; Cato
was followed by a great number of senators, and M. Petreius, one of
them, replied to the consul, who reproached him for withdrawing before
the meeting was closed: “I would rather be in prison with Cato than here
with thee. ” Regretting, however, this first movement of anger, and
struck by the attitude of the assembly, Cæsar immediately restored Cato
to liberty; then he dismissed the Senate, addressing them in the
following words: “I had made you supreme judges and arbiters of this
law, in order that, if any one of its provisions displeased you, it
should not be referred to the people; but, since you have refused the
previous deliberation, the people alone shall decide it. ”

His attempt at conciliation having failed with the Senate, he renewed it
towards his colleague, and, in the assembly of the tribes, adjured
Bibulus to support his proposal. On their side, the people joined their
entreaties with those of Cæsar; but Bibulus, inflexible, merely said:
“You will not prevail with me, though you were all of one voice; and, as
long as I shall be consul, I will suffer no innovation. ”[1112]

Then Cæsar, judging other influences necessary, appealed to Pompey and
Crassus. Pompey seized happily this opportunity for speaking to the
people: he said that he not only approved the agrarian law, but that the
senators themselves had formerly admitted the principle, in decreeing,
on his return from Spain, a distribution of lands to his soldiers and to
those of Metellus; if this measure had been deferred, it was on account
of the penury of the treasury, which, thanks to him, had now ceased.
Then, replying to Cæsar, who asked him if he would support the law in
case it were opposed by violence, “If any one dared to draw his sword,”
he cried, “I would take even my buckler;” meaning by that, that he would
come into the public place armed as for the combat. This bold
declaration of Pompey, supported by Crassus and Cæpio,[1113] silenced
all opposition except that of Bibulus, who, with three tribunes his
partisans, called an assembly of the Senate in his own house, where it
was resolved that at all risk the law should be openly rejected. [1114]

The day of meeting of the comitia having been fixed, the populace
occupied the Forum during the night. Bibulus hurried with his friends to
the temple of Castor, where his colleague was addressing the multitude;
he tried in vain to obtain a hearing, was thrown down from the top of
the steps, and obliged to fly, after seeing his fasces broken to pieces
and two tribunes wounded. Cato, in his turn, tried to mount the rostra;
expelled by force, he returned, but, instead of treating of the
question, seeing that nobody listened to him, he attacked Cæsar with
bitterness, until he was dragged a second time from the tribune. Calm
being restored, the law was adopted. Next day Bibulus tried to propose
to the Senate its abrogation; but nobody supported him, such was the
effect of this burst of popular enthusiasm;[1115] from this moment he
took the part of shutting himself up at home during the residue of
Cæsar’s consulship. When the latter presented a new law on the days of
the comitia, he contented himself with protesting, and with sending by
his lictors to say that he was observing the sky, and that consequently
all deliberation was illegal. [1116] This was to proclaim loudly the
political aim of this formality.

Cæsar was far from yielding to this religious scruple, which, indeed,
had lost its authority. At this very time Lucullus wrote a bold poem
against the popular credulity, and for some time the observation of the
auspices had been regarded as a puerile superstition; two centuries and
a half before, a great captain had given a remarkable proof of this.
Hannibal, then a refugee at the court of King Prusias, engaged the
latter to accept his plans of campaign against the Romans; the king
refused, because the auspices had not been favourable. “What! ” cried
Hannibal, “have you more confidence in a miserable calf’s liver than in
the experience of an old general like me? ”[1117]

Be this as it may, the obligation not to hold the comitia while the
magistrate was observing the sky was a law; and to excuse himself for
not having observed it, as well as to prevent his acts from being
declared null, Cæsar, before quitting his office, brought the question
before the Senate, and thus obtained a legal ratification of his
conduct.

The law being adopted by the people, each senator was called to take his
oath to observe it. Several members, and, among others, Q. Metellus
Celer, M. Cato, and M. Favonius,[1118] had declared that they would
never submit to it; but when the day of taking the oath arrived, their
protests vanished before the fear of the punishment decreed against
those who abstained, and, except Laterensis, everybody, even Cato, took
the oath. [1119]

Irritated at the obstacles which he had encountered, and sure of the
approval of the people, Cæsar included, by a new law, in the
distribution of the public domain, the lands of Campania and of Stella,
omitted before out of deference to the Senate. [1120]

In carrying the law into effect, Pompey’s veterans received lands at
Casilinum, in Campania;[1121] at Minturnæ, Lanuvium, Volturnum, and
Aufidena, in Samnium; and at Bovianum; Clibæ, and Veii, in
Etruria;[1122] twenty thousand fathers of families having more than
three children were established in Campania, so that about a hundred
thousand persons became husbandmen, and re-peopled with free men a great
portion of the territory, while Rome was relieved from a populace which
was inconvenient and debased. Capua became a Roman colony, which was a
restoration of the democratic work of Marius, destroyed by Sylla. [1123]
It appears that the _ager_ of Leontinum, in Sicily, was also comprised
in the agrarian law. [1124] The nomination of the twenty commissioners,
chosen among the most commendable of the consulars, was next proceeded
with. [1125] Of the number were C. Cosconius and Atius Balbus, the
husband of Cæsar’s sister. Clodius could not obtain admission among
them,[1126] and Cicero, after the death of Cosconius, refused to take
his place. [1127] The latter, in his letters to Atticus, blames
especially the distribution of the territory of Capua, as depriving the
Republic of an important revenue; and inquires what will remain to the
State, unless it be the twentieth on the enfranchisement of slaves,
since the rights of toll had already been abandoned through the whole of
Italy; but it was objected with reason that, on the other hand, the
State was relieved from the enormous charges imposed by the necessity of
distributing wheat to all the poor of Rome.

Nevertheless, the allotment of the _ager Campanus_ and of the _ager_ of
Stella met with many delays; it was not yet terminated in 703, since at
that epoch Pompey was advised to hasten the distribution of the
last-mentioned lands, in order that Cæsar, on his return from Gaul,
might not have the merit of it. [1128]


[Sidenote: Cæsar’s various Laws. ]

III. We have seen how, in previous years, Cato was instrumental in
refusing the request of those who farmed the taxes of Asia to have the
terms of their leases lowered. By this rigorous measure, the Senate had
estranged from itself the equestrian order, whose complaints had been
far from unreasonable. In fact, the price paid for the farming of the
revenues of Asia had been heavy during the war against Mithridates, as
may be learnt from the speech of Cicero against the Manilian Law; and
the remission of a portion of the money due to the State was a measure
not without some show of justice to excuse it. Cæsar, when he became
consul, influenced by a sense of justice no less than by policy, lost no
time in proposing a law to remit to the farmers of the revenue one-third
of the sums for which they were responsible. [1129] He first addressed
himself to the Senate; but that body having refused to deliberate on the
question, he found himself compelled to submit it to the people,[1130]
who adopted his opinion. This liberality, so far beyond what they had
hoped for, filled the farmers of the revenue with joy, and rendered them
devoted to the man who showed himself so generous: he advised them,
however, publicly, to be more careful in future, and not overbid in an
inconsiderate manner at the time of the sale of the taxes. [1131]

The agrarian law, and the law concerning the rents, having satisfied the
interests of the proletaries, the veterans, and the knights, it became
important to settle the just demands of Pompey. Therefore Cæsar obtained
from the people their approbation of all the acts of the conqueror of
Mithridates. [1132] Lucullus had been till then one of the most earnest
adversaries of this measure. He could not forget the glory of which
Pompey had frustrated him; but his dread of a prosecution for peculation
was so great, that he fell at Cæsar’s feet, and forswore all
opposition. [1133]

The activity of the consul did not confine itself to internal reforms;
it extended to questions which were raised abroad. The condition of
Egypt was precarious: King Ptolemy Auletes, natural son of Ptolemy
Lathyrus, was afraid lest, in virtue of a forged will of Ptolemy
Alexander, or Alexas, to whose fall he had contributed, his kingdom
might be incorporated with the Roman Empire. [1134] Auletes, perceiving
his authority shaken in Alexandria, had sought the support of Pompey
during the war in Judæa, and had sent him presents, and a large sum of
money, to engage him to maintain his cause before the Senate. [1135]
Pompey had offered himself as his advocate; and Cæsar, whether from
policy, or from a wish to please his son-in-law, caused Ptolemy Auletes
to be declared a friend and ally of Rome. [1136] At his demand, the same
favour was granted to Ariovistus, king of the Germans, who, after having
made war upon the Ædui, had withdrawn from their country at the
invitation of the Senate, and had expressed a desire to become an ally
of Rome. It was entirely the interest of the Republic to conciliate the
Germans, and send them to the other bank of the Rhine, whatever might be
the views of the consul regarding his future command in Gaul. [1137]
Next, he conferred some privileges on certain municipia and satisfied
many ambitions; “for,” says Suetonius, “he granted everything that was
asked of him: no man dared oppose him, and, if any one attempted, he
knew how to intimidate him. ”[1138]

Among the cares of the consul was the nomination of tribunes devoted to
him, since it was they generally who proposed the laws for the people to
ratify.

Clodius, on account of his popularity, was one of the candidates who
could be most useful to him; but his rank of patrician obliged him to
pass by adoption into a plebeian family before he could be elected, and
that he could only do in virtue of a law. Cæsar hesitated in bringing it
forward; for if, on the one hand, he sought to conciliate Clodius
himself, on the other, he knew his designs of vengeance against Cicero,
and was unwilling to put into his hands an authority which he might
abuse. But when, towards the month of March, at the trial of C.
Antonius, charged with disgraceful conduct in Macedonia, Cicero, in
defending his former colleague, indulged in a violent attack upon those
in power, on that same day Clodius was received into the ranks of the
plebeians,[1139] and soon afterwards became, together with Vatinius,
tribune-elect. [1140] There was a third tribune, whose name is unknown,
but who was equally won over to the interests of the consul. [1141]

Thus Cæsar, as even Cicero admits, was alone more powerful already than
the Republic. [1142] Of some he was the hope; of others, the terror; of
all, master irrevocably. The inactivity of Bibulus had only served to
increase his power. [1143] Thus it was said in Rome, as a jest, that men
knew of no other consulship than that of Julius and Caius Cæsar, making
two persons out of a single name; and the following verses were handed
about:--

“Non Bibulo quidquam nuper sed Cæsare factum est:
Nam Bibulo fieri consule nil memini. ”[1144]

And as popular favour, when it declares itself in favour of a man in a
conspicuous position, sees something marvellous in everything that
concerns his person, the populace drew a favourable augury from the
existence of an extraordinary horse born in his stables. Its hoofs were
forked, and shaped like fingers. Cæsar was the only man who could tame
this strange animal, the docility of which, it was said, foreboded to
him the empire of the world. [1145]

During his first consulship, Cæsar caused a number of laws to be passed,
the greater part of which have not descended to us. Some valuable
fragments, however, of the most important ones have been preserved, and
among others, the modifications in the sacerdotal privileges. The
tribune Labienus, as we have seen, in order to secure Cæsar’s election
to the office of pontiff, had granted the right of election to seventeen
tribes selected by lot. Although this law seemed to authorise absentees
to become candidates for the priesthood, the people and the priests
disputed the right of those who did not solicit the dignity in person.
Endless quarrels and disturbances were the result. To put an end to
these, Cæsar, while confirming the law of Labienus, announced that not
only those candidates who appeared in person, but those at a distance
also, who had any title whatever to that honour, might offer themselves
as candidates. [1146]

He turned his attention next to the provinces, whose condition had
always excited his sympathy. The law intended to reform the vices of the
administration (_De provinciis ordinandis_) is of uncertain date; it
bears the same title as that of Sylla, and resembles it considerably.
Its provisions guaranteed the inhabitants against the violence, the
arbitrary conduct, and the corruption of the proconsuls and proprætors,
and fixed the allotments to which these were entitled. [1147]

It released the free states, _liberæ civitates_, from dependence upon
governors, and authorised them to govern themselves by their own laws
and their own magistrates. [1148] Cicero himself considered this measure
as the guarantee of the liberty of the provinces;[1149] for, in his
speech against Piso, he reproaches him with having violated it by
including free nations in his government of Macedonia. [1150] Lastly, a
separate proviso regulated the responsibility and expenses of the
administration, by requiring that on going out of office the governors
should deliver, at the end of thirty days, an account explaining their
administration and their expenses, of which three copies were to be
deposited, one in the treasury (_ærarium_) at Rome, and the others in
the two principal towns of the province. [1151] The proprætors were to
remain one year, and the proconsuls two, at the head of their
governments. [1152]

The generals were in the habit of burdening the people they governed
with exorbitant exactions. They extorted from them crowns of gold
(_aurum coronarium_), of considerable value, under pretence of the
triumph, and obliged the countries through which they passed to bear the
expenses of themselves and their attendants. Cæsar remedied these
abuses, by forbidding the proconsuls to demand the crown before the
triumph had been decreed,[1153] and by subjecting to the most rigorous
restrictions the contributions in kind which were to be furnished. [1154]
We may judge how necessary these regulations were from the fact that
Cicero, whose government was justly considered an honest one, admits
that he drew large sums from his province of Cilicia eight years after
the passing of the law Julia. [1155]

The same law forbad all governors to leave their provinces, or to send
their troops out of them to interfere in the affairs of any neighbouring
State, without permission of the Senate and the people,[1156] or to
extort any money from the inhabitants of the provinces. [1157]

The law by similar provisions diminished the abuse of free legations
(_legationes liberæ_). This was the name given to the missions of
senators, who, travelling into the provinces on their own affairs,
obtained by an abuse the title of envoy of the Roman people, to which
they had no right, in order to be defrayed the expenses and costs of
travelling. These missions, which were for an indefinite time, were the
subject of incessant[1158] complaints. Cicero had limited them to a
year: Cæsar prescribed a still narrower limit, but its exact length is
unknown. [1159]

As a supplement to the preceding measures he brought in a law (_De
pecuniis repetundis_), the provisions of which have often been
confounded with those of the law _De provinciis ordinandis_. Cicero
boasts of its perfection[1160] and justice. It contained a great number
of sections. In a letter from Cœlius to Cicero, the 101st chapter of
the law is referred to. Its object was to meet all cases of peculation,
out of Italy as well as in Rome. Persons who had been wronged could
demand restitution before a legal tribunal of the sums unjustly
collected. [1161] Though the principal provisions of it were borrowed
from the law of Sylla on the same subject, the penalty was more severe
and the proceedings more expeditious. For instance, as the rich
contrived, by going into voluntary exile before the verdict, to elude
the punishment, it was provided that in that case their goods should be
confiscated, in part or wholly, according to the nature of the
crime. [1162] If the fortune of the defendant was not sufficient for the
repayment of the money claimed, all those who had profited by the
embezzlement were sought out and jointly condemned. [1163] Finally,
corruption was attacked in all its forms,[1164] and the law went so far
as to watch over the honesty of business transactions. One article
deserves special remark, that which forbad a public work to be accepted
as completed if it were not absolutely finished. Cæsar had doubtless in
mind the process which he had unsuccessfully instituted against Catulus
for his failure to complete the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus.

We may for the most part consider as Cæsar’s laws those which were
passed at his instigation, whether by the tribune P. Vatinius, or the
prætor Q. Fufius Calenus. [1165]

One of the laws of the former authorised the accuser in a suit, as well
as the accused, to challenge for once all the judges: down to this time
they had only been permitted to challenge a certain number. [1166] Its
object was to give to all the same guarantee which Sylla had reserved
exclusively to the senators, since for the knights and plebeians he
limited the challenge to three. [1167] Vatinius had also conferred on
five thousand colonists, established at Como (_Novum Comum_), the rights
of a Roman city. This measure[1168] flattered the pride of Pompey, whose
father, Pompeius Strabo, had rebuilt the town of Comum; and it offered
to other colonists the hope of obtaining the qualification of Roman
citizens, which Cæsar subsequently granted to them. [1169]

Another devoted partisan of the consul, the prætor Q. Fufius
Calenus,[1170] proposed a law which in judicial deliberations laid the
responsibility upon each of the three orders of which the tribunal was
composed: the senators, the knights, and the tribunes of the treasury.
Instead of pronouncing a collective judgment, they were called upon to
express their opinion separately. Dio Cassius explains the law in these
terms: “Seeing that in a process all the votes were mixed together, and
that each order took to itself the credit of the good decisions, and
threw the bad ones to the account of the others, Calenus had a law made
that the different orders should vote independently, in order to know
thus, not the opinion of individuals, since the vote was secret, but
that of each order. ”[1171]

All the laws of Cæsar were styled “Julian laws;” they received the
sanction of the Senate, and were adopted without opposition,[1172] and
even Cato himself did not oppose them; but when he became prætor, and
found himself obliged to put them into execution, he was little-minded
enough to object to call them by their name. [1173]

We may be convinced by the above facts, that, during his first
consulship, Cæsar was animated by a single motive, the public interest.
His ruling thought was to remedy the evils which afflicted the country.
His acts, which several historians have impeached as subversive and
inspired by boundless ambition, we find, on an attentive examination, to
be the result of a wise policy, and the carrying out of a well-known
plan, proclaimed formerly by the Gracchi, and recently by Pompey
himself. Like the Gracchi, Cæsar desired a distribution of the public
domain, the reform of justice, the relief of the provinces, and the
extension of the rights of city; like them, he had protected the
knightly order, so that he might oppose it to the formidable resistance
of the Senate; but he, more fortunate, accomplished that which the
Gracchi had been unable to realise. Plutarch, in the life of
Crassus,[1174] pronounces a eulogium on the wisdom of his government,
although an intemperate judgment had led that writer, elsewhere, to
compare his conduct to that of a factious tribune. [1175]

Following the taste of the age, and especially as a means of popularity,
Cæsar gave splendid games, shows, and gladiatorial combats, borrowing
from Pompey and Atticus considerable sums to meet his love of display,
his profusion, and his largesses. [1176] Suetonius, ever ready to record,
without distinction, the reports, true and false, current at the time,
relates that Cæsar had taken from the treasury three thousand pounds of
gold, for which he substituted gilt metal; but his high character is
sufficient to refute this calumny. Cicero, who had not, at this time,
any reason to spare him, makes no mention of it in his letters, where
his ill-humour displays itself, nor in his speech against Vatinius, one
of Cæsar’s devoted friends. On the other hand, Pliny[1177] mentions a
similar fact which happened during Pompey’s consulate.


[Sidenote: Cæsar receives the Government of the Gauls. ]

IV. Cæsar did not confine his ambition to discharging the functions of a
consul and legislator: he desired to obtain a command worthy of the
elevation of his genius, to extend the frontiers of the Republic, and to
preserve them from the invasion of their most powerful enemies. It will
be remembered that at the time of the election of the consuls, the
Senate had conferred upon them the superintendence of the woods and
public roads. He had, therefore, slender grounds to expect a return of
friendly feeling on the part of that assembly, and, if the distribution
of governments was vested in them, history offered examples of provinces
given by vote of the people. Numidia was assigned to Marius on the
proposal of the tribune L. Manlius; and L. Lucullus, having received
Cisalpine Gaul from the Senate, obtained Cilicia from the people. [1178]
It was thus that the command of Asia had been conferred upon Pompey.
Strong in these precedents, Vatinius proposed to the people to confer
upon Cæsar, for five years, the command of Cisalpine Gaul and Illyria,
with three legions. [1179] Pompey supported this proposal with all his
influence. The friends of Crassus,[1180] Claudius[1181] and L. Piso,
gave their votes in favour of this law.

At first, it appeared strange that the proposal of the tribune only
included Cisalpine Gaul, without reference to the other side of the
Alps, which alone offered chances of acquiring glory. But, on
reflection, we discover how skilful and politic was this manner of
putting the question. To solicit at the same time the government of both
the Gauls might have seemed exorbitant, and likely to expose him to
failure. To demand the government of Gaul proper was dangerous, for if
he had obtained it without Cisalpine Gaul, which would have devolved
upon another proconsul, Cæsar would have found himself completely
separated from Italy, inasmuch as it would have been impossible for him
to repair thither during the winter, and so preserve continuous
relations with Rome. The proposal of Vatinius, on the contrary, having
for its object only Cisalpine Gaul and Illyria, they could scarcely
refuse a command limited to the ordinary bounds, and Cæsar acquired
thereby a solid basis for operations in the midst of devoted
populations, where his legions could be easily recruited. As to the
province beyond the Alps, it was probable that some fortuitous
circumstance, or new proposal, would place it under his orders. This
happened sooner than he expected, for the Senate, by a skilful, but at
this time unusual, determination, added to his command a third province,
Gallia Comata, or Transalpine, and a fourth legion. The Senate thus
obtained for itself the credit of an initiative, which the people would
have taken of itself had it not been anticipated. [1182]

Transported with joy at this news, Cæsar, according to Suetonius,
exclaimed in the full Senate, that now, having succeeded to the utmost
of his desire in spite of his enemies, he would march over their
heads. [1183] This story is not probable. He was too prudent to provoke
his enemies in their face at the moment he was going to a distance from
Rome. “Always master of himself,” says an old writer, “he never
needlessly ran against anybody. ”[1184]


[Sidenote: Opposition of the Patricians. ]

V. Whilst, contending with the most serious difficulties, Cæsar
endeavoured to establish the Republic on the securest foundations, the
aristocratic party consoled itself for its successive defeats by a petty
war of sarcasm and chicanery. At the theatre they applauded all the
injurious allusions of Pompey, and received Cæsar with coldness. [1185]
Bibulus, the son-in-law of Cato, published libels containing the
grossest attacks. He renewed the accusation of plotting against the
Republic, and of the pretended shameful relations with Nicomedes.