assing, on the way to his province, a town that had a particularly
mean and poverty-stricken look. One of his companions remarked, "I dare
say there are struggles for office even here, and jealousies and
parties." "Yes," said Caesar; "and indeed, for myself, I would sooner be
the first man here than the second in Rome." Arrived at his journey's
end, he took the opportunity of a leisure hour to read the life of
Alexander. He sat awhile lost in thought, then burst into tears. His
friends inquired the cause. "The cause?" he replied. "Is it not cause
enough that at my age Alexander had conquered half the world, while I
have done nothing?" Something, however, he contrived to do in Spain. He
extended the dominion of Rome as far as the Atlantic, settled the
affairs of the provincials to their satisfaction, and contrived at the
same time to make money enough to pay his debts. Returning to Rome when
his year of command was ended, he found himself in a difficulty. He
wished to have the honor of a triumph (a triumph was a procession in
which a victorious general rode in a chariot to the Capitol, preceded
and followed by the spoils and prisoners taken in his campaigns), and he
also wished to become a candidate for the consulship. But a general who
desired a triumph had to wait outside the gates of the city till it was
voted to him, while a candidate for the consulship must lose no time in
beginning to canvass the people. Caesar, having to make his choice
between the two, preferred power to show. He stood for the consulship,
and was triumphantly elected.

Once consul he made that famous Coalition which is commonly called the
First Triumvirate. Pompey was the most famous soldier of the day, and
Crassus, as has been said before, the richest man. These two had been
enemies, and Caesar reconciled them; and then the three together agreed
to divide power and the prizes of power between them. Caesar would have
willingly made Cicero a fourth, but he refused, not, perhaps, without
some hesitation. He did more; he ventured to say some things which were
not more agreeable because they were true of the new state of things.
This the three masters of Rome were not willing to endure, and they
determined that this troublesome orator should be put out of the way.
They had a ready means of doing it. A certain Clodius, of whom we shall
hear more hereafter, felt a very bitter hatred against Cicero, and by
way of putting himself in a position to injure h