of Marius.  The next fortunate event of his life was his marriage with Pompeia, a cousin of Pompey, who was then the foremost man in Rome, having distinguished himself in Spain and in putting down the slave insurrection under Spartacus; but Pompey’s great career in the East had not yet commenced, so that the future rivals at that time were friends.  Caesar glorified Pompey in the Senate, which by virtue of his office he had lately entered.  The next step to greatness was his election by the people—­through the use of immense amounts of borrowed money—­to the great office of Pontifex Maximus, which made him the pagan Pope of Rome for life, with a grand palace to live in.  Soon after he was made Praetor, which office entitled him to a provincial government; and he was sent by the Senate to Spain as Pro-praetor, completed the conquest of the peninsula, and sent to Borne vast sums of money.  These services entitled him to a triumph; but, as he presented himself at the same time as a candidate for the consulship, he was obliged to forego the triumph, and was elected Consul without opposition:  his vanity ever yielded to his ambition.

Thus far there was nothing remarkable in Caesar’s career.  He had risen by power of money, like other aristocrats, to the highest offices of the State, showing abilities indeed, but not that extraordinary genius which has made him immortal.  He was the leader of the political party which Sulla had put down, and yet was not a revolutionist like the Gracchi.  He was an aristocratic reformer, like Lord John Russell before the passage of the Reform Bill, whom the people adored.  He was a liberal, but not a radical.  Of course he was not a favorite with the senators, who wished to perpetuate abuses.  He was intensely disliked by Cato, a most excellent and honest man, but narrow-minded and conservative,—­a sort of Duke of Wellington without his military abilities.  The Senate would make no concessions, would part with no privileges, and submit to no changes.  Like Lord Eldon, it “adhered to what was established, because it was established.”

Caesar, as Consul, began his administration with conciliation; and he had the support of Crassus with his money, and of Pompey as the representative of the army, who was then flushed with his Eastern conquests,—­pompous, vain, and proud, but honest and incorruptible.  Cicero stood aloof,—­the greatest man in the Senate, whose aristocratic privileges he defended.  He might have aided Caesar “in the speaking department;” but as a “new man” he was jealous of his prerogatives, and was always conservative, like Burke, whom he resembled in his eloquence and turn of mind and fondness for literature and philosophy.  Failing to conciliate the aristocrats, Caesar became a sort of Mirabeau, and appealed to the people, causing them to pass his celebrated “Leges Juliae,” or reform bills; the chief of which was the “land act,” which conferred portions of the public lands on Pompey’s disbanded soldiers for settlement,—­a