Where was inevitable, as especially when during his frequent absence from Rome he had need of higher organ there, the person destined for this purpose was, significantly enough, not the legal deputy of the monarch, the prefect of the city, but confidant
officially-recognized jurisdiction, usually Caesar's banker, the cunning and pliant Phoenician merchant Lucius Cornelius Balbus from Gades.
The history of Rome; tr. with the sanction of the ... v.5. Mommsen, Theodor, 1817-1903
