and those condemned to death took part. Some even of the knights,
and,--not to mention others,--a son of a man who had been praetor fought
in single combat. Indeed, a senator named Fulvius Sepinus[92] desired to
contend in full armor, but was prevented; for Caesar had expressed a
fervent wish that that should never take place, though he did permit the
knights to contend. The patrician children went through the so-called
Troy equestrian exercise according to ancient custom, and the young men
who were their peers vied with one another in chariots.

[-24-] Still, it must be said he was blamed for the great number of
those who were slain, on the ground that he had not himself become
satiated with slaughter and was further exhibiting to the populace
symbols of their own miseries; and much more so because he had expended
on all that array countless sums. A clamor in consequence was raised
against him for two reasons,--that he had collected most of the funds
unjustly, and that he had used them up for such purposes.

And by mentioning one feature of his extravagance of that time I shall
thereby give an inkling of all the rest. In order that the sun might not
annoy any of the spectators he had curtains stretched over them made of
silk, according to some accounts. Now this product of the loom is a
device of barbarian luxury and from them has come down even to us to
satisfy the excessive daintiness of veritable women. The civilians
perforce held their peace at such acts, but the soldiers raised an
outcry, not because they cared about the money recklessly squandered but
because they did not themselves get what was appropriated to those
displays. In fact they did not cease from confusion till Caesar suddenly
coming upon them with his own hand seized one man and delivered him up
to punishment. This person was executed for the reasons stated, and two
other men were slaughtered as a kind of piece of ritual. The true cause
I am unable to state, inasmuch as the Sibyl made no utterance and there
was no other similar oracle, but at any rate they were sacrificed in the
Campus Martius by the pontifices and the priest of Mars, and their heads
were set up near the palace.

[-25-] While Caesar was thus engaged he was also enacting many laws,
passing over most of which I shall mention only those most deserving
attention. The courts he entrusted to the senators and the knights alone
so that the purest element of the population, so far as was p