[5] But his genius had risen
above his difficulties and shone out more glorious than before. When the
war was over the Senate had been forced to vote twenty days of
thanksgiving. Twenty days were not enough for Roman, enthusiasm. The
people made them into sixty.
If Caesar came to Rome as consul, the Senate knew too well what it might
expect. What he had been before he would be again, but more severe as his
power was greater. Their own guilty hearts perhaps made them fear another
Marian proscription. Unless his command could be brought to an end in some
far different form, their days of power were numbered, and the days of
inquiry and punishment would begin.
[Sidenote: B.C. 50.]
Cicero had for some time seen what was coming. He had preferred
characteristically to be out of the way at the moment when he expected
that the storm would break, and had accepted the government of Cilicia and
Cyprus. He was thus absent while the active plot was in preparation. One
great step had been gained--the Senate had secured Pompey. Caesar's
greatness was too much for him. He could never again hope to be the first
on the popular side, and he preferred being the saviour of the
Constitution to playing second to a person whom he had patronized. Pompey
ought long since to have been in Spain with his troops; but he had stayed
at Rome to keep order, and he had lingered on with the same pretext.
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