y which he might attach to himself by victories and
rewards. Accordingly, he induced the Tribune Vatinius to propose a bill
to the people granting him the provinces of Cisalpine Gaul and Illyricum
for five years (B.C. 58-54). Transalpine Gaul was shortly afterward
added. Caesar chose the Gallic provinces, as he would thus be able to
pass the winter in Italy and keep up his communication with the city,
while the disturbed state of Farther Gaul promised him sufficient
materials for engaging in a series of wars in which he might employ an
army that would afterward be devoted to his purposes. In addition to
these considerations, Caesar was also actuated by the ambition of
subduing forever that nation which had once sacked Rome, and which had
been, from the earliest times, more or less an object of dread to the
Roman state.

The Consuls of the following year (B.C. 58) were L. Calpurnius Piso and
A. Gabinius. Piso was Caesar's father-in-law, and Gabinius in his
Tribunate had proposed the law conferring upon Pompey the command
against the pirates. Caesar saw that it was evident they would support
whatever the Triumvirs might wish. Cicero was now threatened with
destruction.

In B.C. 62, while the wife of Caesar was celebrating in the house of her
husband, then Praetor and Pontifex Maximus, the rites of the Bona Dea,
from which all male creatures were excluded, it was discovered that P.
Clodius Pulcher, a profligate noble, whom we have seen inciting the army
of Lucullus to insurrection, had found his way into the mansion
disguised in woman's apparel, and, having been detected, had made his
escape by the help of a female slave. The matter was laid before the
Senate, and by them referred to the members of the Pontifical College,
who passed a resolution that sacrilege had been committed. Caesar
forthwith divorced his wife. Clodius was impeached and brought to trial.
In defense he pleaded an alibi, offering to prove that he was at
Interamna at the very time when the crime was said to have been
committed; but Cicero came forward as a witness, and swore that he had
met and spoken to Clodius in Rome on the day in question. In spite of
this decisive testimony, and the evident guilt of the accused, the
Judices pronounced him innocent by a majority of voices (B.C. 61).
Clodius now vowed deadly vengeance against Cicero. To accomplish his
purpose more readily, he determined to become a candidate for the
Tribunate, but for this it was nec