one of their resolutions. Caesar had at that time heard not a word of the mere inception of the war against Juba and against the Romans who had fought on his side, and yet they assigned a triumph for him to hold, as if he had been victor. [-21-] In this way these votes and ratifications took place. Caesar entered upon the dictatorship at once, though he was outside Italy, and chose Antony, who had not yet been praetor, as his master of the horse: and the consul proposed his name, although the augurs most strongly opposed him with the declaration that no one was allowed to be master of the horse for more than six months. They incurred, however, a great deal of laughter for this,--deciding that Caesar should be chosen dictator for a year contrary to all ancestral precedent, and then splitting hairs about the master of the horse. [-22-]Marcus Caelius[76] actually perished because he dared to break the laws laid down by Caesar regarding loans of money, as if their propounder was defeated and ruined, and because he had therefore stirred up to strife Rome and Campania. He had been very prominent in carrying out Caesar's wishes, for which reason moreover he had been appointed praetor; but he became angry because he had not also been made praetor urbanus, and because his colleague Trebonius had been preferred before him for this office, not by lot as had been the custom, but by Caesar's choice. Hence he opposed his colleague in everything and would not let him perform any of the duties that belonged to him. He would not consent to his executing judgments according to Caesar's laws, and furthermore gave notice to such as owed any sum that he would assist them against the money-lenders, and to all who dwelt in other peoples' houses that he would release them from payment of rent. Having by this course won the attachment of many he set upon Trebonius with their aid and would have killed him, had he not managed to change his robe and escape in the crowd. After this failure Caelius privately issued a law in which he gave to all the use of houses free and annulled debts. [-23-] Servilius consequently sent for some soldiers who chanced to be going by on the way to Gaul and after convening the senate under their protection he presented a proposition about the matter in hand. No ratification was reached, since the tribunes prevented it, but the sense of the meeting was recorded and Servilius then ordered the court officers to take down the offending tablets. When Caelius drove them away and acted in a disorderly manner toward the consul himself, they convened again, still protected by the soldiers, and delivered to Servilius the "care of the city," a phrase I have often used previously in regard to it. After this he would not permit Caelius, even in his capacity as praetor, to do anything, but assigned the duties pertaining to his office to some other praetor, debarred him from the senate, dragged him from the rostra in the