ncentrate their
strength in the effort to prevent his having the colleague he desired.
They made choice, therefore, of a certain Bibulus as their candidate.
Bibulus had always been a political opponent of Caesar's, and they
thought that, by associating him with Caesar in the supreme magistracy,
the pride and ambition of their great adversary might be held somewhat
in check. They accordingly made a contribution among themselves to
enable Bibulus to expend as much money in bribery as Lucceius, and the
canvass went on.

[Sidenote: Caesar assumes the whole power.]
[Sidenote: He imprisons Cato.]

It resulted in the election of Caesar and Bibulus. They entered upon the
duties of their office; but Caesar, almost entirely disregarding his
colleague, began to assume the whole power, and proposed and carried
measure after measure of the most extraordinary character, all aiming at
the gratification of the populace. He was at first opposed violently
both by Bibulus and by many leading members of the Senate, especially by
Cato, a stern and inflexible patriot, whom neither fear of danger nor
hope of reward could move from what he regarded his duty. But Caesar was
now getting strong enough to put down the opposition which he
encountered with out much scruple as to the means. He ordered Cato on
one occasion to be arrested in the Senate and sent to prison. Another
influential member of the Senate rose and was going out with him. Caesar
asked him where he was going. He said he was going with Cato. He would
rather, he said, be with Cato in prison, than in the Senate with Caesar.

[Sidenote: Bibulus retires to his house.]
[Sidenote: The year of "Julius and Caesar."]

Caesar treated Bibulus also with so much neglect, and assumed so
entirely the whole control of the consular power, to the utter exclusion
of his colleague, that Bibulus at last, completely discouraged and
chagrined, abandoned all pretension to official authority, retired to
his house, and shut himself up in perfect seclusion, leaving Caesar to
his own way. It was customary among the Romans, in their historical and
narrative writings, to designate the successive years, not by a
numerical date as with us, but by the names of the consuls who held
office in them. Thus, in the time of Caesar's consulship, the phrase
would have been, "In the year of Caesar and Bibulus, consuls," according
to the ordinary usage; but the wags of the city, in order to make sport
of the assumptions