ed the number of praetors, which Sulla
had raised to eight, successively to ten, twelve, fourteen, and sixteen,
and the number of quaestors was increased to forty. Hence the number of
persons from whom the senate was to be filled up became greater than
that of the vacancies, and Caesar accordingly increased the number of
senators, though it is uncertain what number he fixed upon, and raised a
great many of his friends to the dignity of senators. In this, as in
many other cases, he acted very arbitrarily; for he elected into the
senate whomsoever he pleased, and conferred the franchise in a manner
equally arbitrary. These things did not fail to create much discontent.
It is a remarkable fact that, notwithstanding his mode of filling up the
senate, not even the majority of senators were attached to his cause
after his death.

If we consider the changes and regulations which Caesar introduced, it
must strike us as a singular circumstance that among all his measures
there is no trace of any indicating that he thought of modifying the
constitution for the purpose of putting an end to the anarchy, for all
his changes are in reality not essential or of great importance. Sulla
felt the necessity of remodelling the constitution, but he did not
attain his end; and the manner, too, in which he set about it was that
of a short-sighted man; but he was at least intelligent enough to see
that the constitution as it then was could not continue to exist. In the
regulations of Caesar we see no trace of such a conviction; and I think
that he despaired of the possibility of effecting any real good by
constitutional reforms. Hence, among all his laws there is not one that
had any relation to the constitution. The fact of his increasing the
number of patrician families had no reference to the constitution; so
far in fact were the patricians from having any advantages over the
plebeians that the office of the two _oediles Cereales_, which Caesar
instituted, was confined to the plebeians--a regulation which was
opposed to the very nature of the patriciate.

His raising persons to the rank of patricians was neither more nor less
than the modern practice of raising a family to the rank of nobility; he
picked out an individual and gave him the rank of patrician for himself
and his descendants, but did not elevate a whole gens. The distinction
itself was merely a nominal one and conferred no privilege upon a person
except that of holding certain