He had already granted an amnesty. But the optimates
were conscious that they had desired and hoped that the Pompeys might be
victorious in Spain. Caesar invited the surviving leaders of the party to
sue for pardon on not unbecoming conditions. Hitherto they had kept no
faith with him, and on the first show of opportunity had relapsed into
defiance. His forbearance had been attributed to want of power rather than
of will to punish; when they saw him again triumphant, they assumed that
the representative of the Marian principles would show at last the colors
of his uncle, and that Rome would again run with blood. He knew them all.
He knew that they hated him, and would continue to hate him; but he
supposed that they had recognized the hopelessness and uselessness of
farther conspiracy. By destroying him they would fall only under the rod
of less scrupulous conquerors; and therefore he was content that they
should ask to be forgiven. To show further that the past was really to be
forgotten, he drew no distinction between his enemies and his friends, and
he recommended impartially for office those whose rank or services to the
State entitled them to look for promotion. Thus he pardoned and advanced
Caius Cassius, who would have killed him in Cilicia.[1] But Cassius had
saved Syria from being overrun by the Parthians after the death of
Crassus; and the service to the State outweighed the injury to himself.
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