de a lavish display to ensure future political favor
at their hands, and was more magnificent than any of the aediles who had
preceded him. At one time he displayed in the arena three hundred and
twenty pairs of gladiators who fought with swords and spears and with
the net and trident,--and he would have brought in a greater number had
not the Senate feared to allow so many armed men in Rome at one time.
But Caesar did something else that delighted the people even more than
the show of the gladiators. One morning they beheld the statues of
Marius, that had been overthrown by Sulla, set up once more in their
old places, bright with gold and ornaments. Marius had been the
people's idol, and Caesar by this bold stroke gained much of the
popularity that had formerly been attached to that beloved leader.

Another office that Caesar attempted to win was that of Pontifex
Maximus--that is, the High Priest and leader in all of the religious
ceremonies of the Romans, an office with great power and prestige and
the stepping stone to greater things by far.

Caesar staked everything on winning this office and he increased his
debts, which were already enormous, amounting to hundreds of thousands
of dollars in our money, to bribe and flatter and make sure of enough
votes to win the election. He was so deeply in debt, he told his
mother, that in case he did not win the office he would be obliged to
leave Rome, never to return. But luck was on his side and he succeeded,
making his term as Pontifex Maximus notable by revising the Roman
calendar so thoroughly that, with only slight changes, it is used
to-day.

Later on he was made Praetor, and by means of these various offices he
succeeded in becoming one of the leading men in Rome--although his
greatness was not yet as bright as that of Pompey, who had, as he said,
only to stamp his foot to fill Italy with soldiers.

Then there befell in Rome what was known as the conspiracy of Catiline,
in which Caesar had a narrow escape from the intrigue and malice of the
noblemen who hated him because he was a foe of Sulla's and a champion
of the people. Catiline was a nobleman of violent temper and bad
reputation. With many companions he strove to win public office in
Rome, and plotted, if unsuccessful, to raise an army, set fire to the
city and place his party in power by rioting and violence. And under
Catiline's government Caesar, who probably knew nothing of the affair,
was to be elected to