It was now therefore the turn of the aristocracy to make good their high gage, and to wage war as boldly as they had boldly declared it.  But there is no more pitiable spectacle than when cowardly men have the misfortune to take a bold resolution.  They had simply exercised no foresight at all.  It seemed to have occurred to nobody that Caesar would possibly stand on his defence, or that Pompeius and Crassus would combine with him afresh and more closely than ever.  This seems incredible; but it becomes intelligible, when we glance at the persons who then led the constitutional opposition in the senate.  Cato was still absent;(4) the most influential man in the senate at this time was Marcus Bibulus, the hero of passive resistance, the most obstinate and most stupid of all consulars.  They had taken up arms only to lay them down, so soon as the adversary merely put his hand to the sheath; the bare news of the conferences in Luca sufficed to suppress all thought of a serious opposition and to bring the mass of the timid—­that is, the immense majority of the senate—­ back to their duty as subjects, which in an unhappy hour they had abandoned.  There was no further talk of the appointed discussion to try the validity of the Julian laws; the legions raised by Caesar on his own behalf were charged by decree of the senate on the public chest; the attempts on occasion of regulating the next consular provinces to take away both Gauls or one of them by decree from Caesar were rejected by the majority (end of May 698).  Thus the corporation did public penance.  In secret the individual lords, one after another, thoroughly frightened at their own temerity, came to make their peace and vow unconditional obedience—­ none more quickly than Marcus Cicero, who repented too late of his perfidy, and in respect of the most recent period of his life clothed himself with titles of honour which were altogether more appropriate than flattering.(5) Of course the regents agreed to be pacified; they refused nobody pardon, for there was nobody who was worth the trouble of making him an exception.  That we may see how suddenly the tone in aristocratic circles changed after the resolutions of Luca became known, it is worth while to compare the pamphlets given forth by Cicero shortly before with the palinode which he caused to be issued to evince publicly his repentance and his good intentions.(6)

Settlement of the New Monarchical Rule

The regents could thus arrange Italian affairs at their pleasure and more thoroughly than before.  Italy and the capital obtained practically a garrison although not assembled in arms, and one of the regents as commandant.  Of the troops levied for Syria and Spain by Crassus and Pompeius, those destined for the east no doubt took their departure; but Pompeius caused the two Spanish provinces to be administered by his lieutenants with the garrison hitherto stationed there, while he dismissed the officers and soldiers of the legions which were newly raised—­nominally for despatch to Spain—­on furlough, and remained himself with them in Italy.