The Dictator consented at last, but with
prophetic reluctance. "Take him," he said at length, "since you will have
it so--but I would have you know that the youth for whom you are so
earnest will one day overthrow the aristocracy, for whom you and I have
fought so hardly; in this young Caesar there are many Mariuses." [7]
Caesar, not trusting too much to Sylla's forbearance, at once left Italy,
and joined the army in Asia. The little party of young men who had grown
up together now separated, to meet in the future on altered terms. Caesar
held to his inherited convictions, remaining constant through good and
evil to the cause of his uncle Marius. His companion Cicero, now ripening
into manhood, chose the other side. With his talents for his inheritance,
and confident in the consciousness of power, but with weak health and a
neck as thin as a woman's, Cicero felt that he had a future before him,
but that his successes must be won by other weapons than arms. He chose
the bar for his profession; he resolved to make his way into popularity as
a pleader before the Senate courts and in the Forum. He looked to the
Senate itself as the ultimate object of his ambition. There alone he could
hope to be distinguished, if distinguished he was to be.
Cicero, however, was no more inclined than Caesar to be subservient to
Sylla, as he took an early opportunity of showing.
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