remained unpunished as regarded the consuls. Memmius, formerly Cæsar’s enemy, had recently joined his party; nevertheless, the latter, incensed at his impudence, blamed his conduct, and abandoned him; Memmius was exiled.[697] As to Domitius, he was, it is true, accused of solicitation, and the Senate intended absolutely to close the consulship against him by deciding that the consular comitia should not be held until after judgment had been given on his trial. All these facts bear witness to the decay of society, for the moral degradation of the individuals must infallibly bring with it the abasement of the institutions. [Sidenote: Death of Cæsar’s Daughter.] VI. Towards the month of August of the year 700, Cæsar lost his mother Aurelia, and, a few days afterwards, his daughter Julia. The latter, whose health had been declining since the troubles of the preceding year, had become pregnant; she died in giving birth to a son, which did not survive. Cæsar was painfully affected by this misfortune,[698] of which he received the news during his expedition to Britain.[699] Pompey was desirous of burying his wife in his estate of Alba; but the populace opposed it, carried the body to the Campus Martius, and insisted on its being buried there. By that rare privilege reserved to illustrious men, the people sought, according to Plutarch, to honour rather the daughter of Cæsar than the wife of Pompey.[700] This death broke one of the ties which united the two most important men of the Republic. To create new ties, Cæsar proposed his niece Octavia in marriage to Pompey, whose daughter he offered to espouse, although she was already married to Faustus Sylla.[701] [Sidenote: Cæsar’s Buildings at Rome.] VII. At the same period, the proconsul of Gaul was, with the produce of his booty, rebuilding at Rome a magnificent edifice, the old basilica of the Forum, which was extended as far as to the Temple of Liberty. “It will be the most beautiful thing in the world,” says Cicero; “there will be in the Campus Martius seven electoral enclosures and galleries of marble which will be surrounded with great porticoes of a thousand paces. Near it will be a public villa.” Paulus was charged with the execution of the works; Cicero and Oppius considered that 60,000,000 sestertii was a small sum for such an undertaking.[702] According to Pliny, the mere purchase of the site in the Forum cost Cæsar the sum of 100,000,000 sestertii.[703] This building, interrupted by events, was only finished after the African war.[704] [Sidenote: His Relations with Cicero.]