Caesar was chosen consul without opposition.
His party was so powerful that it seemed at one time as if he could name
his colleague, but the Senate succeeded with desperate efforts in securing
the second place. They subscribed money profusely, the immaculate Cato
prominent among them. The machinery of corruption was well in order. The
great nobles commanded the votes of their _clientele_, and they
succeeded in giving Caesar the same companion who had accompanied him
through the aedileship and the praetorship, Marcus Bibulus, a dull,
obstinate fool, who could be relied on, if for nothing else, yet for
dogged resistance to every step which the Senate disapproved. For the
moment they appeared to have thought that with Bibulus's help they might
defy Caesar and reduce his office to a nullity. Immediately on the
election of the consuls, it was usual to determine the provinces to which
they were to be appointed when their consulate should expire. The
regulation lay with the Senate, and, either in mere spleen or to prevent
Caesar from having the command of an army, they allotted him the
department of the "Woods and Forests." [16] A very few weeks had
to pass before they discovered that they had to do with a man who was not
to be turned aside so slightingly.
Hitherto Caesar had been feared and hated, but his powers were rather
suspected than understood.
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