He will fall of himself if we do nothing. When his affairs
were most flourishing, he became unpopular with the hungry rabble of
the city in six or seven days. He could not keep up the mask. His
harshness to Metellus destroyed his credit for clemency, and his
taking money from the treasury destroyed his reputation for riches.
"As to his followers, how can men govern provinces who cannot manage
their own affairs for two months together? Such a monarchy could not
last half a year. The wisest men have miscalculated.... If that is my
case, I must bear the reproach ... but I am sure it will be as I say.
Caesar will fall, either by his enemies or by himself, who is his
worst enemy.... I hope I may live to see it, though you and I should
be thinking more of the other life than of this transitory one: but so
it come, no matter whether I see it or foresee it."--_To
Atticus_, x. 8.
[3] "Nam hic nunc praeter foeneratores paucos nec homo nec ordo quisquam
est nisi Pompeianus. Equidem jam effeci ut maxime plebs et qui antea
noster fuit populus vester esset."--Caelius to Cicero, _Ad Fam_.,
viii. 71.
[4] Caesar says nothing of his putting to sea in a boat, meaning to go
over in person, and being driven back by the weather. The story is
probably no more than one of the picturesque additions to reality made
by men who find truth too tame for them.
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