The extreme patrician section remained irreconcilable. Caesar
complied, but only to find himself denounced again with passionate
pertinacity as having been an accomplice of Catiline. Witnesses were
produced, who swore to having seen his signature to a treasonable bond.
Curius, Cicero's spy, declared that Catiline himself had told him that
Caesar was one of the conspirators. Caesar treated the charge with
indignant disdain. He appealed to Cicero's conscience, and Cicero was
obliged to say that he had derived his earliest and most important
information from Caesar himself. The most violent of his accusers were
placed under arrest. The informers, after a near escape from being
massacred by the crowd, were thrown into prison, and for the moment the
furious heats were able to cool.
All eyes were now turned to Pompey. The war in Asia was over. Pompey, it
was clear, must now return to receive the thanks of his countrymen; and as
he had triumphed in spite of the aristocracy, and as his victories could
neither be denied nor undone, the best hope of the Senate was to win him
over from the people, and to prevent a union between him and Caesar.
Through all the recent dissensions Caesar had thrown his weight on
Pompey's side. He, with Cicero, had urged Pompey's appointment to his
successive commands. When Cicero went over to the patricians, Caesar had
stood by Pompey's officers against the fury of the Senate.
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