Caesar, Julius; Rome -- History -- Republic, 265-30 B.C.
Caesar and Pompey were soldiers. The army was
democratic, and the triumph of the democracy meant the rule of a
popular general. Cicero was a civilian, and a man of speech. In the
forum and in the Curia he knew that he could reign supreme.
Cicero had thus reached the highest step in the scale of promotion by
trimming between the rival factions. Caesar was rising simultaneously
behind him on lines of his own. In the year B.C. 65 he had been aedile,
having for his colleague Bibulus, his future companion on the
successive grades of ascent. Bibulus was a rich plebeian, whose delight
in office was the introduction which it gave him into the society of
the great; and in his politics he outdid his aristocratic patrons. The
aediles had charge of the public buildings and the games and
exhibitions in the capital. The aedileship was a magistracy through
which it was ordinarily necessary to pass in order to reach the
consulship; and as the aediles were expected to bear their own
expenses, the consulship was thus restricted to those who could afford
an extravagant outlay. They were expected to decorate the city with new
ornaments, and to entertain the people with magnificent spectacles. If
they fell short of public expectation, they need look no further for
the suffrages of their many-headed master. Cicero had slipped through
the aedileship, without ruin to himself. He was a self-raised man,
known to be dependent upon his own exertions, and liked from the
willingness with which he gave his help to accused persons on their
trials. Thus no great demands had been made upon him. Caesar, either
more ambitious or less confident in his services, raised a new and
costly row of columns in front of the Capitol. He built a temple to the
Dioscuri, and he charmed the populace with a show of gladiators
unusually extensive. Personally he cared nothing for these sanguinary
exhibitions, and he displayed his indifference ostentatiously by
reading or writing while the butchery was going forward.[8] But he
required the favor of the multitude, and then, as always, took the road
which led most directly to his end. The noble lords watched him
suspiciously, and their uneasiness was not diminished when, not content
with having produced the insignia of Marius at his aunt's funeral, he
restored the trophies for the victories over the Cimbri and Teutons,
which had been removed by Sylla. The name of Marius was growing every
day more dear to the popular party. They forgave, if they had ever
resented, his credulities. His veterans who had fought with him through
his campaigns came forward in tears to salute the honored relics of
their once glorious commander.
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