50
CAESAB⅛ RELATION TO ROME.
It had been difficult even for Scipio, after his victory to live
as a true citizen in the republic, and to know what line of con-
duct to adopt; but the difficulty was infinitely greater for
Caesar, who had for a series of years been in the exercise of an
unlimited command in a great country, and had been accus-
tomed to act like a sovereign prince. It is by no means an
easy thing to lay aside such habits when they are once acquired,
as we may see even in the far less important circumstances of
ordinary life, where the termination of a certain position, and
the transition to another, are connected with incredible diffi-
culties. All that Caesar could lawfully obtain was a second
consulship, which he felt would confer on him nothing hut an
empty honour, for what could he have done with himself and
the republic? He might, it is true, have withdrawn from
public life, and employed his time in the cultivation and exer-
cise of his great mental powers. He had not been at Home
for the last ten years; for had he gone thither, his imperium
would have ceased: and all that he had heard of Borne, and of
those who had the power in their hands, made him only hate
and despise the government. Even if he had merely lived among
those men, many of whom were really bad, he could not have
borne all their pretensions and insolence: the state of things
was in short so complicated, that no one could anticipate a
happy solution of the difficulties. We cannot blame those men
who thought with honor of the consequences if Caesar should
acquire the supreme power in the republic; but his opponents,
instead of endeavouring to bring about a reconciliation, shewed
towards him every symptom of hostility, which must have pro-
voked him in the highest degree. Even as early as the year
701, the consul, M. Claudius Marcellus, lost no opportunity of
insulting Caesar. On one occasion, a magistrate of Como in
Cisalpine Gaul, to whom Caesar, by virtue of a right which
had been transferred to him, had Shortlybefore given the Eoman
franchise, came to Eome ; and although the man was perfectly
innocent, Marcellus had him flogged, as though he had been
the lowest provincial, merely to insult Caesar.1 This was a
significant hint to Cacsar himself.
In the following year, 700, C. Claudius Marcellus, a nephew
of M. Claudius Marcellus, was Consulwith L. Aemilius Paullus.
In the same year, C. Scribonius Curio, the son of the consul of
* Plutarch, Cass. 29; Appian, De Bell. Ctvιl. ii. 26.
c. Scribonius curio, tribune.
51
tlιe same name, was tribune of the people. Among Cicei o’s
letters, there are some addressed to him by Curio, a man of
great talent, but of the most decided profligacy and immorality.
This judgment is surely not too severe. He had at first be-
longed to the Pompeian party, with which he was connected by
ties Ofrelationship and by other circumstances; and he was
considered the most hostile and decided among the adversaries
of Caesar. But the latter knew that Curio was overwhelmed
with debts, which amounted to nearly half a million sterling.
This gives us a notion of the extent of private property at that
time; for a noble Roman might, without difficulty, obtain the
means to pay a debt like that, if he received an imperium. Cacsar
is said to have paid Curio’s debts, and to have thus gained him
over to his side. In the same manner, Caesar bought over the
consul L. Aemilius Paullus with an enormous sum.2 Such pro-
ceedings afford some insight into the state of anarchy in the
administration of the provinces. The time for rendering an
account was when the proconsul returned from his province,
and had celebrated his triumph. This had been the case from
the earliest times, and still remained so, whatever might have
been the number of years during which he had been invested
with the imperium ; but the account required of him related
only to the sums which the senate had granted to him out of
the aerarium. The proconsul had to prove that the soldiers had
received their pay, and had no further claims upon the repub-
lic. People had expected at first that Curio would direct his
power as tribune against Caesar. But he was exceedingly
clever and adroit, and assumed an appearance of neutrality : he
at first did use his power against Caesar; he then directed it
against both Pompey and Caesar; and at length he threw off
the mask, and openly declared for the latter.
In the following year, Caesar’s proconsular imperium was to
terminate, and he now offered himself as a candidate for a
second consulship ; but, as he wished previously to celebrate his
triumph, he would not disband his army, just as Pompey had
done after the war against Mithridates; for no Roman general
2 Appian, De Bell. Civil, ii. 26; Plutarch, Caes. 29; Suetonius, Caes. 29;
Dion Cassius, xl. 60; Veil. Paterc. ii. 48; Val. Maximus, ιx. 1, 6. With
this sum, PauIlus built the Basilica Paulli in the Forum. The splendid columns
of the church of St. Paul, which penshed in the file of 1823, undoubtedly
once belonged to this basilica, as Nibby lrɑlɪeʌes. — N Comp. Bunsen, Beschreib.
der Stadt Bom, vol. iii. pt. 2 p. HO.
E 2