Car. ship ; and at the expiration of their office, the for- 

 axy""*- f mer was to have Spain, with an arrny : Syria, the 

 most lucrative province, was assigned to Crassus, with 

 a sufficient military force to carry on such operations 

 as he might choose to undertake : whilst Cassar on- 

 ly stipulated for himself the continuance of his go- 

 vernment in Gaul, the poorest and most difficult sta- 

 tion, but to him the most valuable, from the facility 

 which it afforded of accomplishing his views.f 



During Czsar's first expedition to Britain, an event 

 occurred of great political consequence, which the 

 Roman writers have generally considered as hasten- 

 ing the disastrous events which followed : this was 

 the death of Julia, the wife of Pompey, and daughter 

 of Cssar. She is universally allowed to have been a 

 woman of great prudence and accomplishments, and 

 to have had much influence both with her father and 

 her husband. The poet Lucan laments her death as 

 a public calamity, and as the signal of strife between 

 her ambitious relatives. 



Parcarum, Julia^ stzva 



Intercepta manu. Quod si tibifata dcdissenl 

 Majorca in luce moras, tu solafarentem 

 Inde virum poteras, atque hinc rctincre parcntem ; 

 Armatasque manus excussojungerefcrro, 

 Ut generos soceris mediae junxere Sabin^c. 



Pharsal. 1. i. v. 113. 



Such was the genera! opinion respecting the disa- 

 greement between these two powerful rivals ; it was 

 considered as the immediate cause of the subversion 

 of the commonwealth ; but Cato said that it was not 

 their disagreement, but their union, which had ruined 

 the state. It is certain, that both parties from this 

 period began to consult more avowedly their indivi- 

 dual interests. Csesar now paid more than usual at- 

 tention to all intelligence from the city ; and was at 

 the utmost pains to secure every person who could 

 be of service to him in the conflict which he saw ap- 

 proaching. He now paid particular court to Cice- 

 ro, who had been recalled from his banishment : he 

 knew well the weak side of this great man, and by 

 addressing his vanity, or as Cicero himself called it, 

 his love of glory, he hoped to secure his neutrality, 

 if not his active co-operation. For this purpose he 

 consulted his taste with regard to the public build- 

 ings which he intended to erect at Rome ; carried on 

 a close correspondence with him during his campaign 

 in Britain, and whilst chasing the painted savages in- 

 to their native woods, he read, criticised, and afiected 

 to admire the poetry of Cicero. 



Whilst things were in this situation, Rome was the 

 scene of the utmost confusion. Clodius bad long, by 

 intrigue and violence, interrupted the operations of 

 the government, and being supported by the mob and 

 a body of armed gladiators, he set at defiance the 

 laws and the magistrates. Milo, a person of great 

 courage, and attached to the senatorian party, resol- 

 ved to combat him in his own way. For this pur- 

 pose, he also hired a band of gladiators, and prepared 

 to oppose force to force. Many sanguinary rencoun- 

 ters took place in the midst of the city ; and the 



S AR. 



streets were sometimes flowing with the blood of the 

 slain. At last, Clodius and Milo having met acci- 

 dentally about fifteen miles from Rome, a quarrel en- 

 sued, and Clodius fell in the conflict. Unheard of 

 outrages followed this event ; the populace carried 

 the body into the senate-house, tore up the benches, 

 and heaping them together, burnt the body on this 

 new species of funeral pile, and along with it burnt 

 down the senate-house and several contiguous build- 

 ings. Pompey's friends hinted at the necessity of a 

 dictator, to put an end to these disorders ; but as this 

 was a measure never resorted to but in cases of the 

 utmost emergency, and had become more than ever 

 suspected since the dictatorship of Sylla, it was at 

 last concluded that Pompey should be named sole 

 consul. Even Cato consented to this novel plan, as 

 being the only remedy in the present distracted state 

 of affairs at Rome. This step, however, gave great 

 advantage to Caesar ; he was already prepared to 

 make any demand ; and he was now furnished with a 

 pretext for doing it, under some colour of justice. 

 His command in Gaul was soon to expire; and ac- 

 cording to the laws then in force, he must resign it 

 before he could aspire to the honour of the consul- 

 ship. To prevent the conjunction of civil and mili- 

 tary power in the person of any individual, it had 

 been ordained by the laws, that no man should enter 

 the city, or even go beyond the limits of his province, 

 without resigning his command, and dismissing his 

 army ; and that no one should be permitted to stand 

 candidate for the consulship, without appearing at 

 Rome, and suing for it in person. These formalities, 

 however, had been dispensed with in the case of Pom- 

 pey, who, though vested with a military command in 

 Spain, not only resided in Rome, but had been raised 

 to the consulship. 



Caesar, therefore, to keep pace with his rival, aspi- 

 red to the same privilege, and asked, as a mere mat- 

 ter of justice, what the other had obtained, but what, 

 in his circumstances, would give him a great and de- 

 cided superiority ; for the addition of consular power 

 at Rome, to. that of general in both the Gauls, was 

 joining Italy itself to the provinces, and making him 

 at once master of the empire. To promote these views, 

 the tribunes in Caesar's interest moved, that, as he 

 was detained abroad in the service of his country, and 

 engaged in hazardous wars which required his pre- 

 sence, he should be exempted from the law which en- 

 joined the candidates for office to attend the canvass 

 in person, and might be elected consul without pre- 

 senting himself to the people. 



It was not difficult to perceive the tendency of this 

 proposition ; but things were now in such a state, 

 that it was equally dangerous to grant or to refuse 

 the demands of Caesar. Pompey could not decently 

 oppose, in the case of his rival, a privilege which had 

 been conferred on himself; and Cicero, either to 

 spothe the ambitious mind of Csesar, or to prevent an 

 immediate rupture, recommended compliance with his 

 request. He represented the danger of a quarrel 

 with Cssar ; but did not consider, as has been well 

 observed (Ferguson's Rom. Hist.'), that he was then 



Caesar. 



Florus expresses very neatly and very justly, the views of these different leaders in their original compact. " Sic igitur 

 C&sare dignitatem comparare, Crasso awgerc, Pompeio reimcre, cupientibits, ommbicsque vetriter potentia cupiibs, de i 

 YfpubKcafticile convenit." 



