After the Spanish war, gold and silver coins were minted, having on one side the laurel-crowned head of Cæsar, with the inscription Cæsar Imperator, and on the reverse the figure of conquering Venus, lance in one hand and on the other a Victory. The conqueror was now treated as being beyond the ordinary human standard. This recognition of superhuman qualities is made plainer in an inscription, placed under a relief of Cæsar (introduced on a metallic map of the world), which reads, “he is a demigod.” The Oriental idea of deification, opposed as it was to the whole genius of government in Rome, was now adopted there. With Julius Cæsar began the custom of deifying the supreme ruler of Rome, and it is significant that, although he refused a ten-year consulship, he did not protest against this use of religion for the purpose of adulation. Now that the supreme authority was unassailably placed in the hands of a single individual, who was protected in its exercise from any legal opposition in Rome, Cæsar showed no hesitation in taking the full responsibility of his position. The Western provinces had for some time been practically under his personal control. He was virtually the founder and the creator of the Roman Empire in the West. The foundation laid by him lasted for hundreds of years. But as military lord of the Roman world he had also to deal with the situation of the East. There especially the extension of the Parthian rule was dreaded, and also anticipated, for the moral effect of the defeat of Crassus a few years before had been immense. Cæsar saw that a war in the East could alone restore the prestige of Rome, and also that it was not safe to leave the conduct of such a war in other hands. His plan was first to conquer the Parthians, and through their territory to reach the Caspian Sea. Afterwards by the way of the Black Sea he meant to march along the Danube, where there were wild tribes which had to be taught to respect the power of Rome, and finally to return to Italy by the way of Germany. Such was the mighty program now developed in the vision of the conqueror. In its details it bore the marks of the bold imagination and the political sagacity which characterized his genius, but the immediate necessity was to bring the Parthian war to an end, and so restore confidence on the Eastern frontier. After the return from Spain the transfer of the bulk of the Roman army to the East was being prepared for.