With Cicero he but partially succeeded. The great
orator solved the problem of the situation by going away into the country
and remaining there for the greater part of the year, and Caesar had to do
without an assistance which, in the speaking department, would have been
invaluable to him. His first step was to order the publication of the
"Acta Diurna," a daily journal of the doings of the Senate. The light of
day being thrown in upon that august body might prevent honorable members
from laying hands on each other as they had lately done, and might enable
the people to know what was going on among them--on a better authority
than rumor. He then introduced his agrarian law, the rough draft of which
had been already discussed, and had been supported by Cicero in the
preceding year. Had he meant to be defiant, like the Gracchi, he might
have offered it at once to the people. Instead of doing so, he laid it
before the Senate, inviting them to amend his suggestions, and promising
any reasonable concessions if they would co-operate. No wrong was to be
done to any existing occupiers. No right of property was to be violated
which was any real right at all. Large tracts in Campania which belonged
to the State were now held on the usual easy terms by great landed
patricians. These Caesar proposed to buy out, and to settle on the ground
twenty thousand of Pompey's veterans.
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