To recall
Caesar would be madness. He wished to remain only to complete his work;
the more honor to him that he was willing to let the laurels fade which
were waiting for him at Rome, before he returned to wear them. There were
persons who would bring him back, because they did not love him. They
would bring him back only to enjoy a triumph. Gaul had been the single
danger to the Empire. Nature had fortified Italy by the Alps. The
mountain-barrier alone had allowed Rome to grow to its present greatness,
but the Alps might now sink into the earth, Italy had no more to
fear.[7]
The orator perhaps hoped that so splendid a vindication of Caesar in the
midst of his worst enemies might have purchased pardon for his onslaught
on the baser members of the "Dynastic" faction. He found himself mistaken.
His eagerness to revenge his personal wrongs compelled him to drink the
bitterest cup of humiliation which had yet been offered to him. He gained
his immediate purpose. The two governors were recalled in disgrace, and
Gabinius was impeached under the new Julian law for having restored
Ptolemy without orders, and for the corrupt administration of his
province. Cicero would naturally have conducted the prosecution; but
pressure of some kind was laid on, which compelled him to stand aside. The
result of the trial on the first of the two indictments was another of
those mockeries of justice which made the Roman law-courts the jest of
mankind.
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