The nomination of the censors, which took place at this period, brought new complications. One, L. Calpurnius Piso, Cæsar’s father-in-law, accepted the office only with regret, and showed an extreme indulgence; the other, Appius Claudius Pulcher, who had been consul in 700, a fiery partisan of the nobles, thought he served their cause by displaying excessive severity. He expelled from the Senate all the freedmen, and several of the most illustrious nobles, among others the historian Sallust, a man of mind and talent, who immediately repaired to the Cisalpine, where Cæsar received him with eagerness.[853]
Appius had no moderation in his harshness. Cicero says of him that, to efface a mere stain, he cut open veins and entrails.[854] Instead of remedying the evil, he only envenomed it; he threw into the ranks of the opposite party all whom he excluded, without giving greater consideration to those whom he kept. There are times when severity is a bad adviser, and is not calculated to restore to a government the moral force it has lost.
Cæsar repairs to the Cisalpine.
II. Cæsar passed the whole of the winter, 704, at Nemetocenna (Arras). “At the beginning of the following year, he started in haste for Italy, in order,” says Hirtius, “to recommend to the municipal towns and colonies his quæstor, Mark Antony, who solicited the priesthood. Supporting him with his credit, he not only sought to serve a faithful friend whom he had himself persuaded to seek that office, but to strive against a faction which wished to defeat him, in order to shake Cæsar’s power at the moment when his government was on the eve of expiring. On his way, before he reached Italy, he received intelligence of the election of Antony to the office of augur; he considered it none the less his duty to visit the municipal towns and colonies, to thank them for their favourable feeling towards Antony. He sought also to secure their support next year (705), for his enemies insolently boasted that they had, on one hand, named to the consulship L. Lentulus and C. Marcellus, who would strip Cæsar of his offices and dignities; and, on the other, that they had deprived Servius Galba of the consulship, in spite of his credit and the number of his votes, for the sole reason that he was Cæsar’s friend and lieutenant.
“Cæsar was received by the municipal towns and colonies with incredible marks of respect and affection; it was the first time he appeared among them since the general insurrection of Gaul. They omitted nothing that could be imagined in adorning the gates, roads, and places on his passage; women and children all rushed in crowds to the public places and into the temples; everywhere they immolated victims and spread tables. The rich displayed their magnificence, the poor rivalled each other in zeal.” Cæsar tasted beforehand the pleasures of a triumph earnestly desired.[855]
After having thus visited Citerior Gaul, he quickly rejoined the army at Nemetocenna. In the prospect of his approaching departure, he wished to strike the minds of the Germans and Gauls by a grand agglomeration of forces, and show himself once more to his assembled troops. The legions, who had withdrawn to their quarters, were sent into the country of the Treviri; Cæsar went there also, and passed the army in review. This solemnity was necessarily grand. He saw before him his old cohorts, with whom he had fought so many battles, and of which the youngest soldiers reckoned eight campaigns. No doubt he reminded them that, general or consul, he owed everything to the people and to the army, and that the glory they had acquired formed between them indissoluble ties. Until the end of the summer he remained in the north of Gaul, “only moving the troops as much as was necessary to preserve the soldiers’ health. T. Labienus received afterwards the command of Citerior Gaul, in the aim of securing more votes for Cæsar’s approaching candidateship for the office of consul. Although the latter was not ignorant of the manœvres of his enemies to detach Labienus from him, and of their intrigues to cause the Senate to deprive him of a part of his army, he could not be prevailed upon either to doubt Labienus, or to attempt anything against the authority of the Senate. He knew that, if the votes were free, the conscript fathers would do him justice.”[856] In fact, whenever the Senate was not under the dominion of a factious minority, the majority pronounced in favour of Cæsar.
It had been decided, in the preceding month of October, that the question of the consular provinces should be brought under consideration on the 1st of March, 704, the period at which Pompey had declared that he would throw no obstacle in the way of the discussion. It was opened then, as appears from a letter of Cicero, and the Senate showed an inclination to recall Cæsar for the Ides of November, 704. Nevertheless, there was no decisive result. People were afraid yet to engage in a struggle for life: Curio, singly, made the Senate tremble by his opposition.[857]
When, in the bosom of that assembly, C. Marcellus was declaiming against Cæsar, Curio began to speak, praised the consul’s prudence, approved much of the proposal that the conqueror of Gaul should be summoned to disband his army; but he insinuated that it would not be less desirable to see Pompey disband his. “Those great generals,” said he, “were objects of suspicion to him, and there would be no tranquillity for the Republic until both of them should become private men.”[858] This speech pleased the people, who, moreover, began to lose much of their esteem for Pompey since the time that, by his law on bribery, a great number of citizens were condemned to exile. On all sides they praised Curio; they admired his courage in braving two such powerful men, and on several occasions an immense crowd escorted him to his house, throwing flowers over him “like an athlete,” says Appian, “who had just sustained a severe and dangerous combat.”[859]
The clever manœuvres of Cicero had such success that, when Marcellus proposed to concert with the tribunes of the people on the means of opposing the candidature of Cæsar, the majority of the Senate gave their opinion to the contrary. On this subject, M. Cœlius wrote to Cæsar: “The opinions have changed so much that now they are ready to reckon as a candidate for the consulship a man who will give up neither his army nor his province.”[860] Pompey gave no sign of life, and let the Senate have its way.
He always seemed to disdain what he desired most. Thus, at this time, he affected an entire carelessness, and retrenched himself in his legality, taking care to avoid all appearance of personal hostility towards Cæsar. At the same time, either in order to avoid being pressed too soon, or to appear indifferent to the question which agitated the Republic, he left his gardens near Rome to visit Campania. Thence he sent a letter to the Senate, in which, while he praised Cæsar and himself, he reminded them that he never had solicited a third consulship, nor yet the command of the armies; that he had received it in spite of himself, in order to save the Republic, and that he was ready to renounce it without waiting the term fixed by the law.[861] This letter, studied and artful, was intended to bring out the contrast between his disinterested conduct and that of Cæsar, who refused to surrender his government; but Curio baffled this manœuvre. “If Pompey were sincere,” he said, “he ought not to promise to give his resignation, but to give it at once; so long as he should not have retired into private life, the command could not be taken from Cæsar. Besides, the interest of the State required the presence of two rivals constantly opposed to each other; and, in his eyes, it was Pompey who openly aspired to absolute power.”[862] This accusation was not without ground; for during the last nineteen years—that is to say, since 684, the time of his first consulship—Pompey had nearly always been in possession of the imperium, either as consul, or as general in the wars against the pirates and against Mithridates, or, finally, as charged with the victualling of Italy. “To take Cæsar’s army from him,” says Plutarch, “and to leave his army to Pompey, was, by accusing the one of aspiring to the tyranny, to give the other the means of obtaining it.”[863]