his Consulship showed that he
was supported by a power against which it was in vain for his enemies to
struggle.

As soon as Caesar had entered upon his Consulship he proposed an agrarian
law for the division of the rich Campanian land. The execution of the
law was to be intrusted to a board of twenty commissioners. The
opposition of the aristocratical party was in vain. Porapey and Crassus
spoke in favor of the law; and the former declared that he would bring
both sword and buckler against those who used the sword. On the day on
which it was put to the vote, Bibulus and the other members of the
aristocracy were driven out of the forum by force of arms: the law was
carried, the commissioners appointed, and about 20,000 citizens,
comprising, of course, a great number of Pompey's veterans, received
allotments subsequently. Bibulus, despairing of being able to offer any
farther resistance to Caesar, shut himself up in his own house, and did
not appear again in public till the expiration of his Consulship.

Caesar obtained from the people a ratification of all Pompey's acts in
Asia, and, to cement their union more closely, gave his only daughter
Julia in marriage to Pompey. His next step was to gain over the Equites,
who had rendered efficient service to Cicero in his Consulship, and had
hitherto supported the aristocratical party. An excellent opportunity
now occurred for accomplishing this object. In their eagerness to obtain
the farming of the public taxes in Asia, the Equites had agreed to pay
too large a sum, and accordingly petitioned the Senate for more
favorable terms. This, however, had been opposed by Metellus Celer,
Cato, and others of the aristocracy; and Caesar, therefore, now carried a
law to relieve the Equites from one third of the sum which they had
agreed to pay. Having thus gratified the people, the Equites, and
Pompey, he was easily able to obtain for himself the provinces which he
wished.

It is not attributing any extraordinary foresight to Caesar to suppose
that he already saw that the struggle between the different parties at
Rome must eventually be terminated by the sword. The same causes were
still in operation which had led to the civil wars between Marius and
Sulla; and he was well aware that the aristocracy would not hesitate to
call in the assistance of force if they should ever succeed in detaching
Pompey from his interests. It was therefore of the first importance for
him to obtain an arm