[-27-] All these and other undertakings which he was planning for the common weal he accomplished not by independent declaration nor by independent cogitation, but he communicated everything in every instance to the heads of the senate, sometimes even to the entire body And to this practice most of all was due the fact that even when he passed some rather harsh measures, he still succeeded in pleasing them. For these actions he received praise; but inasmuch as he had some of the tribunes bring back many of those that stayed away from court, and allowed those who were convicted of bribery in office on actual proof to live in Italy, and furthermore numbered once more among the senate some who were not worthy of it, many murmurings of all sorts arose against him. Yet the greatest censure he incurred from all through his passion for Cleopatra,--not the passion he had displayed in Egypt (that was mere hearsay), but in Rome itself. For she had come to the city with her husband and settled in Caesar's own house, so that he too derived an ill repute from both of them. It caused him no anxiety, however; on the contrary he enrolled them among the friends and allies of the Roman people. [-28-] Meanwhile he was learning in detail all that Pompey was doing in Spain. Thinking him not hard to vanquish, he at first despatched his fleet from Sardinia against him, but later sent on also the army that was available by list, evidently intending to conduct the entire war through his representatives. But when be ascertained that Pompey was progressing mightily and that those sent were not sufficient to fight against him, he finally himself went out to join the expedition, entrusting the city to Lepidus and certain aediles,--eight as some think, or six as is more commonly believed.