ound to their cost that he was a man of his word, for Caesar had every
prisoner crucified, as he had warned them he would do.

He then continued his journey to Rhodes as if nothing had happened and
studied rhetoric under Molo; and so apt a pupil was he that in a very
short time he became an orator second only to Cicero himself.

Rome was in great turmoil and confusion at this time, and the vice of
the men that ruled had weakened her power. There was a great revolt of
slaves not only at Rome but throughout Italy, and the slaves formed
into an army strong enough to defeat the Roman legions.

The slaves barred the roads from Rome, captured their former masters
and made them fight as gladiators in the arena. They set towns afire,
killed women and children, plundered, murdered and cruelly ravaged the
country, until they were defeated in battle by two military leaders who
were sent against them--a rich man named Crassus, who was one of the
most powerful men in Rome, and a soldier named Pompey, who was
considered by the Romans to be one of the greatest generals that their
city had ever seen.

While these things were being accomplished Caesar had finished his
course in rhetoric and returned to Rome, and made his plans to win a
glory greater than that of Pompey and Crassus, who were high in public
favor through their victory over the slaves.

To succeed in Rome without money was impossible in those days, for
large sums had to be expended in bribery and in gaining the favor of
the idle and dissolute Roman people, who refused to work but demanded
to be amused at the expense of others, and would always follow the man
who treated them with the greatest display of liberality. So Caesar
borrowed huge sums of money which he planned to repay from the sums he
could gain when once he was elected to public offices. It is not to be
thought that Caesar always was honest and just, and it has already been
shown that sometimes he was heartless and cruel--but in his favor it
must be said that he never wantonly injured anybody, as so many others
did in the cruel times in which he lived--and that in all things,
except where his own power and future were concerned, he was merciful
and temperate.

Caesar became an official known as quaestor, going to Spain in charge of
certain affairs pertaining to Roman government, and later on he was
made a curule aedile.

In this office his generosity delighted the people. Caesar, with
borrowed riches, ma