By such, statements in the senate and afterward before the people Caesar relieved them to some extent of their fears, but was not able to persuade them entirely to be of good courage until he corroborated his declarations by his deeds.
[-19-] After this he conducted subsequent proceedings in a brilliant manner, as was fitting in honor of so many and such decisive victories. He celebrated triumphs over the Gauls, for Egypt, for Pharnaces and for Juba, in four sections, on four separate days. Most of it doubtless delighted the spectators, but the sight of Arsinoë of Egypt—he had brought her along among the captives—and the horde of lictors and the symbols of triumph taken from citizens who had fallen in Africa displeased them exceedingly. The lictors, on account of their numbers, appeared to them a most outrageous multitude, since never before had they beheld so many at one time: and the sight of Arsinoë, a woman and once called queen, in chains (a spectacle which had never yet been offered, in Rome at least), aroused very great pity, and in consequence on this excuse they incidentally lamented their personal misfortunes. She, to be sure, was released out of consideration for her brothers, but others including Vercingetorix were put to death.
[-20-] The people, accordingly, were disagreeably affected by these sights that I have mentioned, and yet they deemed them very few considering the multitude of the captives and the magnitude of Caesar's accomplishments. This, as well as the fact that he endured very goodnaturedly the army's outspoken comments,[88] led them to admire him extremely. For they made sport of those of their own number appointed to the senate by him and all the other failings of which he was accused:[89] most of all they jested about his love for Cleopatra and his sojourn at the court of Nicomedes, ruler of Bithynia, inasmuch as he had once been at his court when a lad; indeed, they even declared that Caesar had enslaved[90] the Gauls, but Nicomedes Caesar. Finally, on the top of all the rest they all together with a shout declared that if you do well, you will be punished, but if ill you shall rule.[91] This was meant by them to signify that if Caesar should restore self-government to the people—which they regarded as just—and stand trial for the acts he had committed outside the laws, he would even undergo punishment; whereas, if he should cleave to his power,—which they deemed the course of an unjust person,—he would continue sole ruler. As for him, however, he was not displeased at their saying this: on the contrary he was quite delighted that by such frankness toward him they showed a belief that he would never be angry at it,—except in so far as their abuse concerned his association with Nicomedes. At this he was decidedly irritated and evidently pained: he attempted to defend himself, denying with an oath that the case was such, and after that he incurred the further penalty of laughter.
[-21-] Now on the first day of the festival of victory a portent far from good fell to his lot. The axle of the triumphal chariot was crushed just opposite the very temple of Fortune built by Lucullus, so that he had to complete the rest of the course in another. On this occasion, too, he climbed up the stairs of the Capitol on his knees, without noticing at all either the chariot which he had dedicated to Jupiter, or the image of the inhabited world lying beneath his feet, or the inscription upon it: later on, however, he erased from that inscription the name demi-god.
After this triumphal celebration he entertained the populace splendidly, giving them grain beyond the regular measure and olive oil. Also, to the multitude which received the present of grain he assigned the seventy-five denarii which he had promised in advance, and twenty-five more, but to the soldiers five hundred in one sum. Yet he was not merely ostentatious: in most respects he was very exact; for instance, since the throng receiving doles of grain had for a very long period been growing not by lawful methods of increase but in such ways as are common in popular tumults, he investigated the matter and erased half of their names at one time.
[-22-] The first days of the fête he passed as was customary: on the last day, after they had finished dinner, he entered his own forum wearing fancy sandals and garlanded with all sorts of flowers; thence he proceeded homeward with the entire populace, so to speak, alongside escorting him, while many elephants carried torches. He had himself adorned the forum called after him, and it is distinctly more beautiful than the Roman (Forum); yet it had increased the reputation of the other so that that was called the Great Forum. This forum which he had constructed and the temple of Venus, looked upon as the founder of his race, he dedicated at this very time. In honor of them he instituted many contests of all kinds. He furnished with benches a kind of hunting-theatre, which from the fact that it had seats all around without a canopy was called an amphitheatre. Here in honor of his daughter he had animals killed and contests between men in armor; but whoever should care to write down their number would doubtless render his narrative tedious besides falling into errors; for all such things are regularly exaggerated by boasting. [-23-] I shall accordingly pass over this, and be silent on the other like events that subsequently took place—unless, of course, it should seem to me thoroughly necessary to mention some particular point,—but I will give an account of the so-called camelopard, because it was then for the first time introduced into Rome by Caesar and exhibited to all. This animal is in general a camel, except that it has sets of legs not of equal length. That is, its hind legs are shorter. Beginning from the rump its back grows gradually higher, appearing as if it would ascend indefinitely, until the most of its body reaching its loftiest point is supported on the front legs, while the neck stretches up to an unusual height. It has skin spotted like a leopard, and for this reason bears the name common to both animals. Such is the appearance of this beast.
As for the men, he not only pitted one against another in the Forum, as had been customary, but he also in the hippodrome brought them together in companies, horsemen against horsemen, fighters on foot against similar contestants, and others that were a match for one another indiscriminately. Some even, forty in number, fought from elephants. Finally he produced a naval battle, not on the sea nor on the lake but on land. He hollowed out a certain tract on the Campus Martius and by letting water into it introduced ships. In all the contests the captives and those condemned to death took part. Some even of the knights, and,—not to mention others,—a son of a man who had been praetor fought in single combat. Indeed, a senator named Fulvius Sepinus[92] desired to contend in full armor, but was prevented; for Caesar had expressed a fervent wish that that should never take place, though he did permit the knights to contend. The patrician children went through the so-called Troy equestrian exercise according to ancient custom, and the young men who were their peers vied with one another in chariots.
[-24-] Still, it must be said he was blamed for the great number of those who were slain, on the ground that he had not himself become satiated with slaughter and was further exhibiting to the populace symbols of their own miseries; and much more so because he had expended on all that array countless sums. A clamor in consequence was raised against him for two reasons,—that he had collected most of the funds unjustly, and that he had used them up for such purposes.
And by mentioning one feature of his extravagance of that time I shall thereby give an inkling of all the rest. In order that the sun might not annoy any of the spectators he had curtains stretched over them made of silk, according to some accounts. Now this product of the loom is a device of barbarian luxury and from them has come down even to us to satisfy the excessive daintiness of veritable women. The civilians perforce held their peace at such acts, but the soldiers raised an outcry, not because they cared about the money recklessly squandered but because they did not themselves get what was appropriated to those displays. In fact they did not cease from confusion till Caesar suddenly coming upon them with his own hand seized one man and delivered him up to punishment. This person was executed for the reasons stated, and two other men were slaughtered as a kind of piece of ritual. The true cause I am unable to state, inasmuch as the Sibyl made no utterance and there was no other similar oracle, but at any rate they were sacrificed in the Campus Martius by the pontifices and the priest of Mars, and their heads were set up near the palace.
[-25-] While Caesar was thus engaged he was also enacting many laws, passing over most of which I shall mention only those most deserving attention. The courts he entrusted to the senators and the knights alone so that the purest element of the population, so far as was possible, might always preside: formerly some of the common people had also joined with them in rendering decisions. The expenditures, moreover, of men of means which had been rendered enormous by their licentiousness he not only controlled by law but put a strong check upon them by practical measures. There was, on account of the numbers of warriors that had perished, a dangerous scarcity of population, as was proved both from the censuses (which he attended to, among other things, as if he were censor) and from actual observation, consequently he offered prizes for large families of children. Again, because he himself as a result of ruling the Gauls many years in succession had been attracted into a desire for dominion and had by it increased the equipment of his force, he limited by law the term of ex-praetors to one year, and that of ex-consuls to two consecutive years, and enacted in general that no one should be allowed to hold any office for a longer time.