Caesar was head of the Church, but politically there were two other strong leaders in Rome, Pompey and Crassus. These two men were rich, and each was at the head of a large number of followers whom he had armed as militia "for the defense of State." Caesar was poor in purse and could not meet them in their own way even if so inclined. He saw the danger of these rival factions. Strife between them was imminent--street fights were common--and it would require only a spark to ignite the tinder. Caesar the Pontiff--the man of peace--saw a way to secure safety for the State from these two men who had armed their rival legions to protect it. To secure this end he would crush them both. The natural way to do this would have been to join forces with the party he deemed the stronger, and down the opposition. But this done, the leader with whom he had joined forces would still have to be dealt with. Caesar made peace between Pompey and Crassus by joining with them, forming a Triumvirate. This was one of the greatest strokes of statecraft ever devised. It made peace at home--averted civil war--cemented rival factions. When three men join forces, make no mistake--power is never equally divided. Before the piping times of peace could pall, a foreign war diverted attention from approaching difficulties at home. The Gauls were threatening--they were always threatening--war could be had with them any time by just pushing out upon them. To the south, Sicily, Greece, Persia and Egypt had been exploited--fame and empire lay in the dim and unknown North. Only a Caesar could have known this. He had his colleagues make him governor of Gaul. Gaul was a troublesome place to be, and they were quite willing he should go there. For a priest to go among the fighting Gauls--they smiled and stroked their chins! Gaul had definite boundaries on the south--the Rubicon marked the line--but on the north it was without limit. Real-estate owners own as high in the air and as deep in the earth as they wish to go. Caesar alone guessed the greatness of Gaul. Under pretense of protecting Rome from a threatened invasion he secured the strongest legions of Pompey and Crassus. Combining them into one army he led them northward to such conquest and victory as the world had never before seen. It is not for me to tell the history of Caesar's Gallic wars. Suffice it to say that in eight years he had penetrated what is now Switzerland, France, Germany and England. Everywhere he left monuments of his greatness in the way of splendid highways, baths, aqueducts and temples. Colonies of settlers from the packed population of Rome followed the victors. An army left to itself after conquest will settle down to riot and mad surfeit, but this man kept his forces strong by keeping them at work--discipline was never relaxed, yet there was such kindness and care for his men that no mutiny ever made head.