The Mucia bubble had
burst. Pompey saw in Caesar only the friend who had stood by him in every
step of his later career, and had braved the fury of the Senate at the
side of his officer Metellus Nepos. Equally certain it was that Caesar, as
a soldier, would interest himself for Pompey's legionaries, and that they
could be mutually useful to each other. Caesar had the people at his back,
and Pompey had the army. The third great power in Rome was that of the
capitalists, and about the attitude of these there was at first some
uncertainty. Crassus, who was the impersonation of them, was a friend of
Caesar, but had been on bad terms with Pompey. Caesar, however, contrived
to reconcile them; and thus all parties outside the patrician circle were
combined for a common purpose. Could Cicero have taken his place frankly
at their side, as his better knowledge told him to do, the inevitable
revolution might have been accomplished without bloodshed, and the course
of history have been different. Caesar wished it. But it was not so to be.
Cicero perhaps found that he would have to be content with a humbler
position than he had anticipated, that in such a combination he would have
to follow rather than to lead. He was tempted. He saw a promise of peace,
safety, influence, if not absolute, yet considerable. But he could not
bring himself to sacrifice the proud position which he had won for himself
in his consulship, as leader of the Conservatives; and he still hoped to
reign in the Senate, while using the protection of the popular chiefs as a
shelter in time of storms.
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