[-47-] Whereas the consuls were thus disposed of, the remaining magistrates were nominally elected by the plebs and by the populace, in accord with ancient customs (for Caesar would not accept the appointment of them), but really by him, and without the casting of lots they were sent out among the provinces. As for number, all were the same as before, except that thirteen praetors and forty quaestors were appointed. For, since he had made many promises to many people, he had no other way to redeem them, and that accounts for his actions. Furthermore he enrolled a vast number in the senate, making no distinction, whether a man were a soldier, or a child of one enslaved, so that the sum of them grew to nine hundred: and he enrolled many among the patricians and among the ex-consuls or such as had held some office. When some were tried for bribery and convicted he released them, so that he was charged with bribe-taking himself. This report was strengthened by the fact that he also exposed[105] in the market all the public lands, not only the profane, but also the consecrated lots, and auctioned off the majority of them. Nevertheless to some persons he granted ample gifts in the form of money or the sale of lands; and to a certain Lucius Basilus[106] he allowed no rulership of a province, though the latter was praetor, but bestowed a large amount of money in place of it, so that Basilus became notorious both in this matter and because when insulted in the course of his praetorship by Caesar he stood his ground.[107] All this suited those citizens who were making or expecting to make corrupt gain, since they reverenced no element of the public weal in comparison with bettering themselves by such acts. But all the rest took it greatly to heart, and had much to say about it to intimates and also (as many as felt safe in so doing) in outspoken public conversation and the publication of anonymous pamphlets.