restored to their rights and patrimonies; " for though their case was cruel, as he mournfully confessed, "yet such," he added, "was the dependence of the state upon the laws of Sulla, that it could not stand, if they were broken down." 12 A proposal by one of the Tribunes, that all existing debts should be annulled, was opposed by the Consul, notwithstanding its acceptability to the lower classes, because of its injustice to the higher.13 With equal zeal to hinder the abuses in more powerful quarters, he himself brought up a law to abolish, which was necessarily modified so as simply to restrict, the right of the Senate to grant permissions of travel or residence in the provinces at the expense of their inhabitants.14 such a course, Cicero could not avoid exciting expostulation, and in many instances aversion; but if these different proceedings be fairly weighed, it will be seen how evenly he meant to hold the scales between the restless parties and pursuits with which he had to deal.

In

Wherever such a cause as that which Cicero maintained, in defending the laws and the liberties of his country, requires the avoidance of so many disturbances and the consideration of so many contending interests, it is plain that there must be an opposite cause upheld with greater or less assurance. At the head of those preparing to attack the institutions of Rome was Julius Cæsar, whose resolution has been

11 Plut., Cic., 12.

12 Quint., Inst. Orat., XI. 1. 85. 13 Dion Cass., XXXVII. 25.

14 These grants were called Free Legations. Cic., De Legg., III.

18.

previously remarked as that of one not likely to be persuaded or controlled against his will. From the time of the quæstorship, when he brought forward the images of Marius, or more particularly from a subsequent ædileship, in which he set up his uncle's trophies on the very Capitol itself,15 Cæsar had taken the lead of the party left without a chief at Marius's death, and reduced by Sulla's triumph to nearly total inanition. Its ranks, gradually filled by individuals discontented with Pompey's power or with the authority still in possession of the Senate, comprised an apparently inconsiderable number of Knights, but a much larger array of the lower orders, especially in the city. Partly by means of his extraordinary talents, but still more by means of the most profuse expenditures in games and bribes and personal displays, Cæsar was now the leader of this mongrel faction, whose only bonds of union consisted in their admiration of him and their hostility to the higher estates whom Cicero was endeavouring to reconcile. Its movements were far from being abrupt or threatening; for its members had no particular purposes in view; and Cæsar was not yet prepared to commit himself by open resistance to the upper orders, with whom, as well as with Cicero, he affected to be, or to desire to be, upon friendly terms. Another circumstance, perhaps, to keep him quiet was the ascendency that the new Consul had for the moment acquired over his own followers; but at any rate, the designs

15 See the reports about him in Plut., Cæs., 6, where Catulus is

represented as having charged him with storming the Commonwealth.

of which Cæsar was undoubtedly the author required at first no more than underhand instigation on his part.

The first point was to stir the populace from their contentment under Cicero to some vast hopes, of which they were to be brought, as it were, to see the impracticability, unless they followed their leader into a revolution. At the close of the preceding year, but after the consular clection, a bill denominated Agrarian was proposed by the Tribune Servilius Rullus, providing for the appointment of ten commissioners with ample powers to sell the greater part of the public domains, to receive the public spoils and revenues, excepting such as were in Pompey's hands, and then, with the enormous sums they should thus procure, to purchase lands in Italy for the needy citizens, and to found some colonies upon that portion of the public territory which might remain unsold.16 To accomplish this gigantic project, the commissioners were to keep their offices for five years, with irresponsible and absolute power, as well beyond as within the boundaries of Italy; and one of the arguments which Cicero, who appeared in opposition on the first day of his consulate, directed against the bill, was a warning against the ten kings" proposed for exercising authority over the

16 The details of the scheme will be found in Cicero's orations De Leg. Agr., I. 1, 2, 5, 7, II. 5, 7, 22, 25, 26, III. 1, 3, 4. It was not intended to disturb any proprietors who had come into possession of

lands in Italy since A. C. 82 (Sulla's triumph), or out of Italy since 88 (the Social War).

17 De Leg. Agr., II. 6. See also I. 7, II. 10, 13, 15; and Plut., Cic., 12.

entire Commonwealth.

In contrast with the popular

18

character which was drawn over the hidden purposes of the measure, the Consul entreated the people to observe that "nothing could be so popular as what he then offered them in peace, tranquillity, and case.' The promises and the reasonings of Cicero, backed by a large proportion of the citizens, prevailed against the bill; but it was not so easily forgotten by the populace that the largess they were then denied might one day be obtained.

The next step which Cæsar took was intended to show his adherents that the revolution of which they might hear whispers was to be achieved with impunity. Another Tribune, Titus Labienus, came forward to charge Caius Rabirius, an aged Senator, with having murdered Saturninus in the conflict between him and the Senate, thirty-seven long years before. The old man was tried by two judges, appointed, after an antiquated form, by the Prætor; 19 and they, being none other than Julius and his kinsman Lucius Cæsar, pronounced Rabirius guilty. He appealed from their sentence to the Centuries, before whom Hortensius the Senator and Cicero both appeared in his defence. The leaders of the

populace, greatly strengthened since the Agrarian bill, were now resolved, at Cæsar's bidding, as others besides themselves understood,20 to strike a blow at

18 De Leg. Agr., II. 37.

19 That of trial for perduellio, or high-treason, conducted in olden times before the Duumviri Per

duellionis. See Cic., Pro Rab.,

5.

20 Suet., Cæs., 12. Dion Cass., XXXVII. 26 et seq.

the Senate, and even to decide its incompetency to arm the magistrates or the people against an insurrection. Cicero plainly declared "it was to render the authority of the Senate, the power of the Consuls, and the union of all good men against the calamities and the perils of the Commonwealth unavailing, that the age, the infirmity, and the loneliness of this man had been arraigned." But it was only through a stratagem 22 that the assembly was dispersed before the people voted against the gray hairs of Rabirius, for the sake of their own security or that of their leaders, in the contests they seemed to see at hand.

21

While Cæsar could always obtain the voices of the magistrates, even if he were sometimes baffled in se curing the votes of the people, it mattered little whether he acted through them, or himself appeared in order to sustain his schemes. He was fast advancing upon his astonishing career. his astonishing career. Within a brief interval from the accusation of Rabirius, the Tribune Labienus carried the repeal of the law by which Sulla restored to the pontifical college the right of filling its own vacancies; and immediately afterwards, the Tribes, to whom the election returned, appointed Cæsar to the office of Chief Pontiff.23 One of his competitors for the place, the Senator Catulus, offered him an enormous sum, if he would retire from the

21 Pro C. Rab.,

1.

22 Of Metellus Celer, then in the prætorship, who pulled down the standard on the Janiculum; the assembly, according to an old form,

not being in order, unless the standard was kept flying. Dion Cass., XXXVII. 27, 28.

23 Suet., Cæs., 13.