These letters give a vivid picture of the uncertainties which distracted public opinion during the fatal first week of January. Caesar, it seems, might possibly have been consul had he been willing to retire at once into the condition of a private citizen, even though Pompey was still undisarmed. Whether in that position he would have lived to see the election-day is another question. Cicero himself, it will be seen, had been reflecting already that there were means less perilous than civil war by which dangerous persons might be got rid of. And there were weak points in his arguments which his impatience passed over. Caesar held a positive engagement about his consulship, which the people had ratified. Of the ten years which the people had allowed him, one was unexpired, and the Senate had no power to vote his recall without the tribunes' and the people's consent. He might well hesitate to put himself in the power of a faction so little scrupulous. It is evident, however, that Pompey and the two consuls were afraid that, if such overtures were made to him by a deputation from the Senate, he might perhaps agree to them; and by their rapid and violent vote they put an end to the possibility of an arrangement. Caesar, for no other crime than that as a brilliant democratic general he was supposed dangerous to the oligarchy, had been recalled from his command in the face of the prohibition of the tribunes, and was declared an enemy of his country unless he instantly submitted. After the experience of Marius and Sylla, the Senate could have paid no higher compliment to Caesar's character than in believing that he would hesitate over his answer. [1] "Caelius ad Ciceronem," _Ad Fam_. viii. 10. [2] _Ibid_. [3] Suetonius, _De Vitâ Julii Caesaris_. [4] "Marcellus foede do Comensi. Etsi ille magistratum non gesserat, erat tamen Transpadanus. Ita mihi videtur non minus stomachi nostro ac Caesari fecisse."--_To Atticus_, v. 11. [5] "Quod ad Caesarem crebri et non belli de eo rumores. Sed susurratores dumtaxat veniunt.... Neque adhuc certi quidquam est, neque haec incerta tamen vulgo jactantur. Sed inter paucos, quos tu nosti, palam secreto narrantur. At Domitius cum manus ad os apposuit!"--Caelius to Cicero, _Ad Fam_. viii. 1. [6] Caelius to Cicero, _Ad Fam_. viii. 8. [7] _Ibid_., viii. 13. [8] Caelius to Cicero, _Ad Fam_. viii. 14. [9] _To Atticus_, vii. 1, abridged. [10] _Ibid._, vii. 2. [11] _Ibid._, vii. 3. [12] _To Atticus_, vii. 4. [13] "Mihi autem illud molestissimum est, quod solvendi sunt nummi Caesari, et instrumentum triumphi eo conferendum. Est [Greek: amorphon hantipoliteuomenou chreopheiletaen] esse."--_Ibid_., vii. 8. [14] "Inviti et coacti" is Caesar's expression. He wished, perhaps, to soften the Senate's action. (_De Bello Civili_, i. 2.) [15] "Seque alterum fore Sullam inter suos gloriatur."--_De Bello Civili_, i. 4. [16] "Tum certe tyrannus existet."--_To Atticus_, vii. 5.