III. TRIAL OF RABIRIUS (691) 352 IV. CÆSAR GRAND PONTIFF (691) 354 V. CATILINE’S CONSPIRACY 357 VI. ERROR OF CICERO 379 VII. CÆSAR PRÆTOR (692) 381 VIII. ATTEMPT OF CLODIUS (692) 386 IX. POMPEY’S TRIUMPHAL RETURN (692) 388 X. DESTINY REGULATES EVENTS 397 CHAPTER IV. (693-695.) I. CÆSAR PROPRÆTOR IN SPAIN (693) 402 II. CÆSAR DEMANDS A TRIUMPH AND THE CONSULSHIP (694) 409 III. ALLIANCE OF CÆSAR, POMPEY, AND CRASSUS 413 IV. CÆSAR’S ELECTION 418 CHAPTER V. CONSULSHIP OF CÆSAR AND BIBULUS (695). I. ATTEMPTS AT CONCILIATION 421 II. AGRARIAN LAWS 424 III. CÆSAR’S VARIOUS LAWS 432 IV. CÆSAR RECEIVES THE GOVERNMENT OF THE GAULS 445 V. OPPOSITION OF THE PATRICIANS 448 VI. LAW OF CLODIUS--EXILE OF CICERO 456 VII. THE EXPLANATION OF CÆSAR’S CONDUCT 460 PREFACE. Historic truth ought to be no less sacred than religion. If the precepts of faith raise our soul above the interests of this world, the lessons of history, in their turn, inspire us with the love of the beautiful and the just, and the hatred of whatever presents an obstacle to the progress of humanity. These lessons, to be profitable, require certain conditions. It is necessary that the facts be produced with a rigorous exactness, that the changes political or social be analysed philosophically, that the exciting interest of the details of the lives of public men should not divert attention from the political part they played, or cause us to forget their providential mission. Too often the writer represents the different phases of history as spontaneous events, without seeking in preceding facts their true origin and their natural deduction; like the painter who, in re-producing the characteristics of Nature, only seizes their picturesque effect, without being able, in his picture, to give their scientific demonstration. The historian ought to be more than a painter; he ought, like the geologist, who explains the phenomena of the globe, to unfold the secret of the transformation of societies.