[8] Caesar, who had been chosen praetor for Spain, was ² detained in the city by his creditors, as he owed much more than he could pay, by reason of his political expenses. He was reported as saying that he needed 25,000,000 sesterces ³ in order to have nothing at all. However, he arranged with those who were detaining him as best he could and proceeded to Spain. Here he neglected the transaction of public business, the administration of justice, and all matters of that kind because he considered them of no use ⁴ to his purposes, but he raised an army and attacked the ⁵ independent Spanish tribes one by one until he made the whole country tributary to the Romans. He also sent much money to the public treasury at Rome. For these reasons the Senate awarded him a triumph. He was making preparations outside the walls for a most splendid procession, during the days when candidates for the consulship were required to present themselves. It was not lawful for one who was going to have a triumph to enter the city and then go back again for the triumph. As Caesar was very anxious to secure the office, and his procession was not yet ready, he sent to the Senate and asked permission to stand for the consulship while absent, through the intercession of friends, for although he knew it was against the law it had been done by others. Cato opposed his proposition and used up the last day for the presentation of candidates, in speech making. Thereupon Caesar abandoned his triumph, entered the city, offered himself as a candidate, and waited for the comitia.

[9] In the meantime Pompey, who had acquired great glory and power by his Mithridatic war, was asking the Senate to ratify numerous concessions that he had granted to kings, princes, and cities. Many senators, however, moved by envy, made opposition, and especially Lucullus, who had held the command against Mithridates before Pompey, and who considered that the victory was his, since he had left the king in a state of extreme weakness for Pompey. Crassus coöperated with Lucullus in this matter. Pompey was indignant and made friends with Caesar and promised under oath to support him for the consulship. The latter thereupon brought Crassus into friendly relations with Pompey. Thus these three most powerful men coöperated together for their mutual advantage. This coalition the Roman writer Varro treated in a book entitled Tricaranus (the three-headed monster). ⁶ The Senate had its suspicions of them and elected Lucius Bibulus as Caesar’s colleague to hold him in check. ⁷

[10] Strife sprang up between them immediately and they proceeded to arm themselves secretly against each other. Caesar, who was a master of dissimulation, made speeches in the Senate in the interest of harmony with Bibulus, as though he were taking care lest harm should come to the republic from their disagreement. As he was believed to be sincere, Bibulus was thrown off his guard. While Bibulus was unprepared and suspecting nothing, Caesar secretly got a large band of soldiers in readiness and brought before the Senate measures for the relief of the poor by the distribution of the public land to them. The best part of this land around Capua, ⁸ which was leased for the public benefit, he proposed to bestow upon those who were the fathers of at least three children, by which means he bought for himself the favor of a multitude of men. Twenty-thousand, who had three children each, came forward at once. As many senators opposed his motion he ⁹ pretended to be indignant at their injustice, and rushed out of the Senate and did not convene it again for the remainder of the year, ¹⁰ but harangued the people from the rostra. In a public assembly he asked Pompey and Crassus what they thought about his proposed laws. Both gave their approval, and the people came to the voting-place carrying concealed daggers.

[11] The Senate (since no one called it together and it was not lawful for one consul to do so without the consent of the other) assembled at the house of Bibulus, but did nothing to counteract the force and preparation of Caesar. They planned, however, that Bibulus should oppose Caesar’s laws, so that they should seem to be overcome by force rather than by their own negligence. Accordingly, Bibulus burst into the forum while Caesar was still speaking. Strife and tumult arose, blows were given, and those who had daggers broke the fasces and insignia of Bibulus and wounded some of the tribunes who stood around him. Bibulus was in no wise terrified, but bared his neck to Caesar’s partisans and loudly called on them to strike. If I cannot persuade Caesar to do right, he said, I will affix upon him the guilt and stigma of my death. His friends, however, led him, against his will, out of the crowd and into the neighboring temple of Jupiter Stator. Cato was indignant at these proceedings, and, being a young man, forced his way to the midst of the crowd and began to make a speech, but was lifted up and dragged out by Caesar’s partisans. Then he went around secretly by another street and again mounted the rostra; but as he despaired of making a speech, since nobody would listen to him, he abused Caesar roundly until he was ejected by the Caesarians, and Caesar secured the enactment of his laws.

[12] The plebeians swore to observe these laws forever, and Caesar directed the Senate to do the same. Many of them, including Cato, refused, and Caesar proposed and the people enacted the death penalty to the recusants. Then they became alarmed and took the oath, including the tribunes, ¹¹ for it was no longer of any use to speak against it after the law had been confirmed by the others. And now Vettius, a plebeian, ran into the forum with a drawn dagger and said that he had been sent by Bibulus, Cicero, and Cato to kill Caesar and Pompey, and that the dagger had been given to him by Postumius, the lictor of Bibulus. Although this affair was open to suspicion on both sides, Caesar made use of it to inflame the multitude and postponed the examination of the assailant. Vettius was thrown into prison and killed the same night. As this transaction was variously commented on, Caesar did not let it pass unnoticed, but said that it had been done by the opposite party who were afraid of exposure. ¹² Finally, the people furnished him a guard to protect him against conspirators, and Bibulus abstained from public business altogether, like a private citizen, and did not go out of his house for the remainder of his official term.

[13] As Caesar now had the sole administration of public affairs, he did not make any further inquiry concerning Vettius. He brought forward new laws to win the favor of the multitude, and caused all of Pompey’s acts to be ratified, as he had promised him. The so-called knights, who held the middle place in rank between the Senate and the plebeians, and were extremely powerful in all ways by reason of their wealth, and of the farming of the provincial revenues which they contracted for, and who kept for this purpose multitudes of very trusty servants, had been asking the Senate for a long time to release them from a part of what they owed to the treasury. The Senate was consuming time on this question. As Caesar did not want anything of the Senate then, but was employing the people only, he released the publicans from a third part of their contracts. For this unexpected favor, which was far beyond their deserts, the knights extolled Caesar to the skies. Thus a more powerful body of defenders than that of the plebeians was added to Caesar’s support through one political act. He gave spectacles and combats of wild beasts beyond his means, borrowing money on all sides, and surpassing all former exhibitions in lavish display and splendid gifts, in consequence of which he was appointed governor of both Cisalpine and Transalpine Gaul for five years, with the command of four legions.

[14] As Caesar saw that he would be away from home a long time, and believed that envy would be in proportion to benefits conferred, he gave his daughter in marriage to Pompey, although she was betrothed to Caepio, because he feared that even a friend might become envious of his great success. He promoted the boldest of his partisans to the principal offices for the ensuing year. He designated his friend Aulus Gabinius as consul, with Lucius Piso as his colleague, whose daughter, Calpurnia, Caesar married, although Cato cried out that the government was debauched by marriages. For tribunes he chose Vatinius and Clodius Pulcher, although the latter had been suspected of an amour with the wife of Caesar himself during a religious ceremony of women, ¹³ but whom Caesar did not bring to trial because Clodius was very popular with the masses; but he divorced his wife. Others prosecuted Clodius for impiety at the sacred rites, and Cicero made the argument for the prosecution. When Caesar was called as a witness he refused to testify against Clodius, but even raised him to the tribuneship as a foil to Cicero who was already decrying the triumvirate as tending toward monarchy. Thus Caesar turned a private grievance to useful account and benefited one enemy in order to revenge himself on another. It appears, however, that Clodius had previously requited Caesar by helping him to secure the governorship of Gaul.