pose. By persuasion and effecting a reconciliation, he
brought them together, and he formed out of the union of all three an
irresistible power by which he put down the Roman senate and the
people, though he did not make Pompeius and Crassus more powerful, one
through the other, but by means of the two he made himself most
powerful; for immediately on being supported by Pompeius and Crassus,
he was elected consul by a great majority. While Caesar was ably
discharging the business of the consulship, Crassus and Pompeius, by
procuring for him the command of armies, and by delivering Gaul into
his hands, fixed him in a kind of acropolis, thinking that they should
administer the rest of the State as they mutually agreed, after
securing to Caesar the authority which the lot had given him. Now
Pompeius did all this through unbounded love of power; but to the old
vice of Crassus, his avarice, there was now added a new passion,
ambition for trophies and triumphs excited by the great exploits of
Caesar, since it was in this alone that he was Caesar's inferior; for he
had the superiority in everything else; and his passion remitted not
nor diminished till it resulted in an inglorious death and public
misfortunes. Caesar had come down from Gaul to the city of Luca, and
many of the Romans went to him there, and Pompeius and Crassus had
private conferences with him, in which they agreed to take affairs in
hand more vigorously, and to hold the whole power of the State at
their disposal, to which end Caesar was to remain in his military
command, and Pompeius and Crassus were to have other provinces and
armies. To this object there was only one road, which was to ask for a
second consulship, and Caesar was to assist them in their canvass by
writing to his friends and sending many of his soldiers to support
them at the comitia.

XV. As soon as Crassus and Pompeius[49] returned to Rome, suspicion
was excited, and there was much talk through the whole city that their
meeting had been held for no good. In the Senate Marcellinus and
Domitius asked Pompeius if he intended to be a candidate for the
consulship, to which Pompeius replied that perhaps he should, and
perhaps he should not; being asked again, he said that he was a
candidate for the votes of the good citizens, but not a candidate for
the votes of the bad. It was considered that Pompeius had made a
haughty and arrogant answer; but Crassus said, in a more modest tone,
that he would