What took place in this interview? No one knows; but we may conjecture from the events which were the immediate consequences of it. It is evident, in the first place, that Crassus and Pompey, who had recently quarrelled, were reconciled by Cæsar, who, no doubt, placed before their eyes the arguments most calculated to reconcile them: “The public interest required it; they alone could put an end to the state of anarchy which afflicted the capital; in a country which was a prey to vulgar ambitions, it required, to control them, ambitions which were greater, but, at the same time, purer and more honourable; they must easily have seen that it was not in the power of a man like Cicero, with his tergiversations, his cowardice, and his vanity, or Cato, with his stoicism, belonging to another age, or Domitius Ahenobarbus, with his implacable hatred and his selfish passions, to restore order, or put an end to the divisions of opinion. In order to obtain these results, it was necessary that Crassus and Pompey should labour resolutely to obtain the consulship.[640] As to himself, he only asked to remain at the head of his army, and complete the conquest he had undertaken. Gaul was vanquished, but not subjugated. Some years were still necessary to establish there the Roman domination. This fickle and warlike people, always ready for revolt, was secretly incited and openly supported by two neighbouring nations, the Britons and the Germans. In the last war against the Belgæ, the promoters of the rising, according to the confession of the Bellovaci, had clearly shown, by taking refuge in Britain after their defeat, whence came the provocation. Even at this very moment, the insurrection which was in preparation among the tribes of the Veneti, on the shores of the ocean, was instigated by these same islanders. As to the Germans, the defeat of Ariovistus had not discouraged them; and several contingents of that nation were lately found with the troops of Hainault. He intends to chastise these two peoples, and to carry his arms beyond the Rhine as well as beyond the sea; let them, then, leave him to finish his enterprise. Already the Alps are levelled; the barbarians, who, hardly forty-four years ago, were ravaging Italy, are driven back into their deserts and forests. A few years more, and fear or hope, punishments or recompenses, arms or laws, will have bound for ever Gaul to the empire.”[641]