the opposition to the new dynasts had gained ground
in recent years, the majority of the senate was still, when this matter
came to be discussed in Sept. 697, under the constraint of the terror
excited by Caesar. It obsequiously accepted the project in principle,
and that on the proposition of Marcus Cicero, who was expected to give,
and gave, in this case the first proof of the pliableness
learned by him in exile. But in the settlement of the details
very material portions were abated from the original plan,
which the tribune of the people Gaius Messius submitted.
Pompeius obtained neither free control over the treasury,
nor legions and ships of his own, nor even an authority superior
to that of the governors; but they contented themselves
with granting to him, for the purpose of his organizing
due supplies for the capital, considerable sums, fifteen adjutants,
and in allaffairs elating to the supply of grain full proconsular
power throughout the Roman dominions for the next five years,
and with having this decree confirmed by the burgesses.
There were many different reasons which led to this alteration,
almost equivalent to a rejection, of the original plan: a regard
to Caesar, with reference to whom the most timid could not but have
the greatest scruples in investing his colleague not merely with equal
but with superior authority in Gaul itself; the concealed opposition
of Pompeius' hereditary enemy and reluctant ally Crassus,
to whom Pompeius himself attributed or professed to attribute primarily
the failure of his plan; the antipathy of the republican opposition
in the senate to any decree which really or nominally enlarged
the authority of the regents; lastly and mainly, the incapacity
of Pompeius himself, who even after having been compelled to act
could not prevail on himself to acknowledge his own action, but chose
always to bring forward his real design as it were in incognito
by means of his friends, while he himself in his well-known modesty
declared his willingness to be content with even less. No wonder
that they took him at his word, and gave him the less.

Egyptian Expedition

Pompeius was nevertheless glad to have found at any rate
a serious employment, and above all a fitting pretext for leaving
the capital. He succeeded, moreover, in providing it with ampler
and cheaper supplies, although not without the provinces severely
feeling the reflex effect. But he had missed his real object;
the proc