uld be chosen dictator for
a year contrary to all ancestral precedent, and then splitting hairs
about the master of the horse. [-22-]Marcus Caelius[76] actually perished
because he dared to break the laws laid down by Caesar regarding loans of
money, as if their propounder was defeated and ruined, and because he
had therefore stirred up to strife Rome and Campania. He had been very
prominent in carrying out Caesar's wishes, for which reason moreover he
had been appointed praetor; but he became angry because he had not also
been made praetor urbanus, and because his colleague Trebonius had been
preferred before him for this office, not by lot as had been the custom,
but by Caesar's choice. Hence he opposed his colleague in everything and
would not let him perform any of the duties that belonged to him. He
would not consent to his executing judgments according to Caesar's laws,
and furthermore gave notice to such as owed any sum that he would assist
them against the money-lenders, and to all who dwelt in other peoples'
houses that he would release them from payment of rent. Having by this
course won the attachment of many he set upon Trebonius with their aid
and would have killed him, had he not managed to change his robe and
escape in the crowd. After this failure Caelius privately issued a law in
which he gave to all the use of houses free and annulled debts. [-23-]
Servilius consequently sent for some soldiers who chanced to be going by
on the way to Gaul and after convening the senate under their protection
he presented a proposition about the matter in hand. No ratification was
reached, since the tribunes prevented it, but the sense of the meeting
was recorded and Servilius then ordered the court officers to take down
the offending tablets. When Caelius drove them away and acted in a
disorderly manner toward the consul himself, they convened again, still
protected by the soldiers, and delivered to Servilius the "care of the
city," a phrase I have often used previously in regard to it. After this
he would not permit Caelius, even in his capacity as praetor, to do
anything, but assigned the duties pertaining to his office to some other
praetor, debarred him from the senate, dragged him from the rostra in the
midst of some vociferation, and broke to pieces his chair.

[-24-]Of course Caelius was violently angry at him for each of these
acts, but since Servilius had a rather respectable body of troops in
town he was afrai