Caesar, it seems,
might possibly have been consul had he been willing to retire at once into
the condition of a private citizen, even though Pompey was still
undisarmed. Whether in that position he would have lived to see the
election-day is another question. Cicero himself, it will be seen, had
been reflecting already that there were means less perilous than civil war
by which dangerous persons might be got rid of. And there were weak points
in his arguments which his impatience passed over. Caesar held a positive
engagement about his consulship, which the people had ratified. Of the ten
years which the people had allowed him, one was unexpired, and the Senate
had no power to vote his recall without the tribunes' and the people's
consent. He might well hesitate to put himself in the power of a faction
so little scrupulous. It is evident, however, that Pompey and the two
consuls were afraid that, if such overtures were made to him by a
deputation from the Senate, he might perhaps agree to them; and by their
rapid and violent vote they put an end to the possibility of an
arrangement. Caesar, for no other crime than that as a brilliant
democratic general he was supposed dangerous to the oligarchy, had been
recalled from his command in the face of the prohibition of the tribunes,
and was declared an enemy of his country unless he instantly submitted.
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