th his Gallic wealth
for all those engaged in public life to draw from, and had released
Curio[513] the tribune from many debts, and given to Paulus the consul
fifteen hundred talents, out of which he decorated the Forum with the
Basilica, a famous monument which he built in place of the old one
called Fulvia;--under these circumstances, Pompeius, fearing cabal,
both openly himself and by means of his friends exerted himself to
have a successor[514] appointed to Caesar in his government, and he
sent and demanded back of him the soldiers[515] which he had lent to
Caesar for the Gallic wars. Caesar sent the men back after giving each
of them a present of two hundred and fifty drachmae. The officers who
led these troops to Pompeius, spread abroad among the people reports
about Caesar which were neither decent nor honest; and they misled
Pompeius by ill-founded hopes, telling him that the army of Caesar
longed to see him, and that while he with difficulty directed affairs
at Rome owing to the odium produced by secret intrigues, the force
with Caesar was all ready for him, and that if Caesar's soldiers should
only cross over to Italy, they would forthwith be on his side: so
hateful, they said, had Caesar become to them on account of his
numerous campaigns, and so suspected owing to their fear of monarchy.
With all this Pompeius was inflated, and he neglected to get soldiers
in readiness, as if he were under no apprehension; but by words and
resolution he was overpowering Caesar, as he supposed, by carrying
decrees against him, which Caesar cared not for at all. It is even said
that one of the centurions who had been sent by him to Rome, while
standing in front of the Senate-house, on hearing that the Senate
would not give Caesar a longer term in his government. "But this," he
said, "shall give it," striking the hilt of his sword with his hand.

XXX. However, the claim of Caesar at least had a striking show of
equity. For he proposed that he should lay down his arms and that when
Pompeius had done the same and both had become private persons, they
should get what favours they could from the citizens; and he argued
that if they took from him his power and confirmed to Pompeius what he
had, they would be stigmatizing one as a tyrant and making the other a
tyrant in fact. When Curio made this proposal before the people on
behalf of Caesar, he was loudly applauded; and some even threw chaplets
of flowers upon him as on a victorio