vil which all good men should oppose. We have the happy conspiracy in
which Washington became the military leader, and the French Revolution,
which, bloody as it was, succeeded in rescuing Frenchmen from the
condition of serfdom. At home we have our own conspiracy against the
Stuart royalty, which had also noble results. The Gracchi had attempted
to effect something of the same kind at Rome; but the moral condition of
the people had become so low that no real love of liberty remained.
Conspiracy! oh yes. As long as there was anything to get, of course he
who had not got it would conspire against him who had. There had been
conspiracies for and against Marius, for and against Cinna, for and
against Sulla. There was a grasping for plunder, a thirst for power
which meant luxury, a greed for blood which grew from the hatred which
such rivalry produced. These were the motive causes for conspiracies;
not whether Romans should be free but whether a Sulla or a Cotta should
be allowed to run riot in a province.

Caesar at this time had not done much in the Roman world except fall
greatly into debt. Knowing, as we do know now, his immense intellectual
capacity, we cannot doubt but at the age he had now reached,
thirty-five, B.C. 65, he had considered deeply his prospects in life.
There is no reason for supposing that he had conceived the idea of being
a great soldier. That came to him by pure accident, some years
afterward. To be Quaestor, Praetor, and Consul, and catch what was going,
seems to have been the cause to him of having encountered extraordinary
debt. That he would have been a Verres, or a Fonteius, or a Catiline, we
certainly are not entitled to think. Over whatever people he might have
come to reign, and in whatever way he might have procured his kingdom,
he would have reigned with a far-seeing eye, fixed upon future results.
At this period he was looking out for a way to advance himself. There
were three men, all just six years his senior, who had risen or were
rising into great repute; they were Pompey, Cicero, and Catiline. There
were two who were noted for having clean hands in the midst of all the
dirt around; and they were undoubtedly the first Romans of the day.
Catiline was determined that he too would be among the first Romans of
the day; but his hands had never been clean. Which was the better way
for such a one as Caesar to go?

To have had Pompey under his feet, or Cicero, must have then seemed to
Caesar