" [14]
The discord had been suspended, and the intrigues temporarily checked, by
the combination of Caesar and Pompey with Crassus, the chief of the
moneyed commoners. Two men of equal military reputation, and one of them
from his greater age and older services expecting and claiming precedency,
do not easily work together. For Pompey to witness the rising glory of
Caesar, and to feel in his own person the superior ascendency of Caesar's
character, without an emotion of jealousy, would have demanded a degree of
virtue which few men have ever possessed. They had been united so far by
identity of conviction, by a military detestation of anarchy, by a common
interest in wringing justice from the Senate for the army and people, by a
pride in the greatness of their country, which they were determined to
uphold. These motives, however, might not long have borne the strain but
for other ties, which had cemented their union. Pompey had married
Caesar's daughter, to whom he was passionately attached; and the personal
competition between them was neutralized by the third element of the
capitalist party represented by Crassus, which if they quarrelled would
secure the supremacy of the faction to which Crassus attached himself.
There was no jealousy on Caesar's part. There was no occasion for it.
Caesar's fame was rising.
Pages:
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420