He boasted that he would be a second Sylla.[15]
When the Senate met again in their places, the tribunes' veto was
disallowed. They ordered a general levy through Italy. The consuls gave
Pompey the command-in-chief, with the keys of the treasury. The Senate
redistributed the provinces; giving Syria to Scipio, and in Caesar's place
appointing Domitius Ahenobarbus, the most inveterate and envenomed of his
enemies. Their authority over the provinces had been taken from them by
law, but law was set aside. Finally, they voted the State in danger,
suspended the constitution, and gave the consuls absolute power.
The final votes were taken on the 7th of January. A single week had
sufficed for a discussion of the resolutions on which the fate of Rome
depended. The Senate pretended to be defending the constitution. They had
themselves destroyed the constitution, and established on the ruins of it
a senatorial oligarchy. The tribunes fled at once to Caesar. Pompey left
the city for Campania, to join his two legions and superintend the levies.
The unanimity which had appeared in the Senate's final determination was
on the surface only. Cicero, though present in Rome, had taken no part,
and looked on in despair. The "good" were shocked at Pompey's
precipitation. They saw that a civil war could end only in a despotism.
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