At last he prevailed upon his father, and
reconciled him to Cicero.
XIV. When Caesar returned from his province,[48] he made preparations
to be a candidate for the consulship; but, observing that Crassus and
Pompeius were again at enmity, he did not choose by applying to one of
them for his help to have the other for his enemy, and he did not
think that he could succeed if neither of them assisted him.
Accordingly, he set about reconciling them, by continually urging upon
them, and showing that by their attempts to ruin one another they
would increase the power of the Ciceros, and Catuli, and Catos, who
would lose all their influence if they would unite their friends and
adherents, and so direct the administration with combined strength,
and one purpose. By persuasion and effecting a reconciliation, he
brought them together, and he formed out of the union of all three an
irresistible power by which he put down the Roman senate and the
people, though he did not make Pompeius and Crassus more powerful, one
through the other, but by means of the two he made himself most
powerful; for immediately on being supported by Pompeius and Crassus,
he was elected consul by a great majority. While Caesar was ably
discharging the business of the consulship, Crassus and Pompeius, by
procuring for him the command of armies, and by delivering Gaul into
his hands, fixed him in a kind of acropolis, thinking that they should
administer the rest of the State as they mutually agreed, after
securing to Caesar the authority which the lot had given him.
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