e returned to Rome in 74, and soon became a _tribunus
militum_. In the agitation for the restoration of the powers of the
tribunes of the _plebs_, Caesar took a prominent part; he also
supported the _Lex Aurelia_ of 70, which gave the _equites_ a share in
the _iudicia_, and the _Lex Plautia_, granting an amnesty to the
adherents of Lepidus and Sertorius.

The year 68 he spent as quaestor in Farther Spain, and on his return
to Rome strenuously advocated the claims of the Transpadane Gauls to
the Roman franchise. His first wife having died, he married Pompeia,
daughter of Q. Pompeius Rufus, and granddaughter of Sulla, whom he
divorced five years later on account of her alleged adultery with P.
Clodius. In 67 and 66 the bills of Gabinius and Manilius, conferring
extensive military powers upon Pompey, were supported by Caesar and
the other leading democrats.

Whether Caesar was concerned in the abortive attempt of Catiline at
revolution in 65, is a moot point. He was now aedile, and acquired
great popularity by the splendid shows which he gave to the people,
and by his restoration of the statue and trophies of Marius. In 64, as
president of the _quaestio de sicariis_, he condemned some of the most
active agents in Sulla's proscriptions. In 63 he supported the _lex
agraria_ of P. Servilius Rullus, and brought about the prosecution of
C. Rabirius for the murder of the tribune Saturninus. On the
re-enactment of the _Lex Domitia de sacerdotiis_, Caesar was elected
_pontifex maximus_. He was again suspected, probably with good ground,
of complicity with Catiline's designs; he certainly proposed in the
Senate that the conspirators should be punished with imprisonment
instead of death. Praetor in 62, he worked in Pompey's cause by
proposing that the charge of rebuilding the Capitoline temple should
be transferred to him from the aristocratic champion Catulus, and by
supporting the bill of the tribune Metellus Nepos for electing Pompey
consul in absence. Next year Caesar was propraetor of Farther Spain,
where he conquered the Lusitanians and Gallaecians, and amassed
considerable wealth. His coalition with Pompey and Crassus procured
for him the consulship of 59, rendered notable by the _Leges Iuliae_;
and before he went out of office his position was secured by the _Lex
Vatinia_, conferring on him the government of Cisalpine Gaul and
Illyricum for five years, with the command of three legions;
Transalpine Gaul and another legion