Caesar said that these vain distinctions needed
limitation, rather than increase; but the flattery had a purpose in it,
and would not be checked.
One day a deputation waited on him with the proffer of some "new marvel."
[17] He was sitting in front of the Temple of Venus Genetrix, and when
the senators approached he neglected to rise to receive them. Some said
that he was moving, but that Cornelius Balbus pulled him down. Others said
that he was unwell. Pontius Aquila, a tribune, had shortly before refused
to rise to Caesar. The senators thought he meant to read them a lesson in
return. He intended to be king, it seemed; the constitution was gone,
another Tarquin was about to seize the throne of Republican Rome.
Caesar was king in fact, and to recognize facts is more salutary than to
ignore them. An acknowledgment of Caesar as king might have made the
problem of reorganization easier than it proved. The army had thought of
it. He was on the point of starting for Parthia, and a prophecy had said
that the Parthians could only be conquered by a king.--But the Roman
people were sensitive about names. Though their liberties were restricted
for the present, they liked to hope that one day the Forum might recover
its greatness. The Senate, meditating on the insult which they had
received, concluded that Caesar might be tempted, and that if they could
bring him to consent he would lose the people's hearts.
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