It thus happened that, when Julius Caesar came upon the stage, the aristocracy controlled the elections.  The people were indeed sovereign; but they abdicated their power to those who would pay the most for it.  The constitution was popular in name; in reality it was aristocratic, since only rich men (generally noble) could be elected to office.  Rome was ruled by aristocrats, who became rich as the people became poor.  The great source of senatorial wealth was in the control of the provinces.  The governors were chosen by the Senate and from the Senate; and it required only one or two years to make a fortune as a governor, like Verres.  The ultimate cause which threw power into the hands of the rich and noble was the venality of the people.  The aristocratic demagogues bought them, in the same way that rich monopolists in our day control legislatures.  The people are too numerous in this country to be directly bought up, even if it were possible, and the prizes they confer are not high enough to tempt rich men, as they did in Rome.

A man, therefore, who would rise to power at Rome must necessarily bribe the people, must purchase their votes, unless he was a man of extraordinary popularity,—­some great orator like Cicero, or successful general like Marius or Sulla; and it was difficult to get popularity except as a lawyer and orator, or as a general.

Caesar, like Cicero and Hortensius, chose the law as a means of rising in the world; for, though of ancient family, he was not rich.  He must make money by his profession, or he must borrow it, if he would secure office.  It seems he borrowed it.  How he contrived to borrow such vast sums as he spent on elections, I do not know.  He probably made friends of rich men like Crassus, who became security for him.  He was in debt to the amount of $1,500,000 of our money before he held office.  He was a bold political gambler, and played for high stakes.  It would seem that he had very winning and courteous manners, though he was not distinguished for popular oratory.  His terse and pregnant sentences, however, won the admiration of his friend Cicero, a brother lawyer, and he was very social and hospitable.  He was on the liberal side in politics, and attacked the abuses of the day, which won him popular favor.  At first he lived in a modest house with his wife and mother, in the Subarra, without attracting much notice.  The first office to which he was elected was that of a Military Tribune, soon after his sojourn of two years in Rhodes to learn from Apollonius the arts of oratory.  His next office was that of Quaestor, which enabled him to enter the Senate, at the age of thirty-two; and his third office, that of Aedile, which gave him the control of the public buildings:  the Aediles were expected to decorate the city, and this gave him opportunities of cultivating popularity by splendor and display.  The first thing which brought him into notice as an orator was a funeral oration he pronounced on his Aunt Julia, the widow