rs, whom they feared. Amid all
these happenings, as being favorable, they wore the garb of peace, which
they had not as yet put off. Lucius Metellus, a tribune, opposed the
proposition about the money, and when his efforts proved ineffectual
went to the treasury and kept watch of its doors. The soldiers, paying
little heed to either his guarding or his outspokenness, cut through the
bar,--for the consuls had the key, as if it were not possible for
persons to use axes in place of it,--and carried out all the money. In
fact, Caesar's other projects also, as I have often stated, he both
brought to vote and carried out in the same fashion, under the name of
democracy,--the most of them being introduced by Antony,--but with the
substance of despotism. Both men named their political rivals enemies of
their country and declared that they themselves were fighting for the
public interests, whereas each really ruined those interests and
increased only his own private possessions.

[-18-] After taking these steps Caesar occupied Sardinia and Sicily
without a battle, as the governors there at that time withdrew.
Aristobulus he sent home to Palestine to accomplish something against
Pompey. He also allowed the children of those proscribed by Sulla to
canvass for office, and arranged everything else both in the city and in
the rest of Italy to his own best advantage, so far as circumstances
permitted. Affairs, at home he now committed to Antony's care and
himself set out for Spain which distinctly chose to follow Pompey and
caused him some uneasiness lest his rival should induce the Gallic
countries to revolt. Meantime Cicero and other senators did not appear
in Caesar's sight, but retired to join Pompey, who, they believed, had
more justice on his side and would conquer in the war. For the consuls
before setting sail and Pompey using the authority of proconsul had
ordered them all to accompany him to Thessalonica on the general ground
that the capital was being held by certain enemies but that they
themselves were the senate and would maintain the form of the government
wherever they should be. For this reason most of the senators and the
knights, some of them immediately and others later, and all the cities
that were not subdued by Caesar's arms, embraced his cause.

[-19-]The Massilians, however, alone of the peoples who dwell in Gaul,
refused to cooeperate with Caesar, and would not receive him into their
city, but made a notewor