Cato at first urged the law in
opposition to Caesar's request, but seeing that many of the senators
had been gained over by Caesar, he attempted to elude the question by
taking advantage of time and wasting the day in talking, till at last
Caesar determined to give up the triumph and to secure the consulship.
As soon as he entered the city, he adopted a policy which deceived
everybody except Cato; and this was the bringing about of a
reconciliation between Pompeius and Crassus, the two most powerful men
in Rone, whom Caesar reconciled from their differences, and centering
in himself the united strength of the two by an act that had a
friendly appearance, changed the form of government without its being
observed. For it was not, as most people suppose, the enmity of Caesar
and Pompeius which produced the civil wars, but their friendship
rather, inasmuch as they first combined to depress the nobility and
then quarrelled with one another. Cato, who often predicted what would
happen, at the time only got by it the character of being a morose,
meddling fellow, though afterwards he was considered to be a wise, but
not a fortunate adviser.
XIV. Caesar,[473] however, supported on both sides by the friendship of
Crassus and Pompeius, was raised to the consulship and proclaimed
triumphantly with Calpurnius Bibulus for his colleague. Immediately
upon entering on his office he proposed enactments more suitable to
the most turbulent tribune than a consul, for in order to please the
populace he introduced measures for certain allotments and divisions
of land.
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