In the year B.C. 65 he had been aedile,
having for his colleague Bibulus, his future companion on the successive
grades of ascent. Bibulus was a rich plebeian, whose delight in office was
the introduction which it gave him into the society of the great; and in
his politics he outdid his aristocratic patrons. The aediles had charge of
the public buildings and the games and exhibitions in the capital. The
aedileship was a magistracy through which it was ordinarily necessary to
pass in order to reach the consulship; and as the aediles were expected to
bear their own expenses, the consulship was thus restricted to those who
could afford an extravagant outlay. They were expected to decorate the
city with new ornaments, and to entertain the people with magnificent
spectacles. If they fell short of public expectation, they need look no
further for the suffrages of their many-headed master. Cicero had slipped
through the aedileship, without ruin to himself. He was a self-raised man,
known to be dependent upon his own exertions, and liked from the
willingness with which he gave his help to accused persons on their
trials. Thus no great demands had been made upon him. Caesar, either more
ambitious or less confident in his services, raised a new and costly row
of columns in front of the Capitol. He built a temple to the Dioscuri, and
he charmed the populace with a show of gladiators unusually extensive.
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