also to take measures against the closing of the transmarine traffic contemplated by his opponents who commanded the sea, and against the famine with which the capital was consequently threatened; whereby Caesar’s already sufficiently complicated military task was complicated further still.  Financially it was certainly of importance, that Caesar had the good fortune to obtain possession of the stock of money in the capital; but the principal sources of income and particularly the revenues from the east were withal in the hands of the enemy, and, in consequence of the greatly increased demands for the army and the new obligation to provide for the starving population of the capital, the considerable sums which were found quickly melted away.  Caesar soon found himself compelled to appeal to private credit, and, as it seemed that he could not possibly gain any long respite by this means, extensive confiscations were generally anticipated as the only remaining expedient.

Its Political Results
Fear of Anarchy

More serious difficulties still were created by the political relations amidst which Caesar found himself placed on the conquest of Italy.  The apprehension of an anarchical revolution was universal among the propertied classes.  Friends and foes saw in Caesar a second Catilina; Pompeius believed or affected to believe that Caesar had been driven to civil war merely by the impossibility of paying his debts.  This was certainly absurd; but in fact Caesar’s antecedents were anything but reassuring, and still less reassuring was the aspect of the retinue that now surrounded him.  Individuals of the most broken reputation, notorious personages like Quintus Hortensius, Gaius Curio, Marcus Antonius,—­ the latter the stepson of the Catilinarian Lentulus who was executed by the orders of Cicero—­were the most prominent actors in it; the highest posts of trust were bestowed on men who had long ceased even to reckon up their debts; people saw men who held office under Caesar not merely keeping dancing-girls—­which was done by others also—­but appearing publicly in company with them.  Was there any wonder, that even grave and politically impartial men expected amnesty for all exiled criminals, cancelling of creditors’ claims, comprehensive mandates of confiscation, proscription, and murder, nay, even a plundering of Rome by the Gallic soldiery?

Dispelled by Caesar

But in this respect the “monster” deceived the expectations of his foes as well as of his friends.  As soon even as Caesar occupied the first Italian town, Ariminum, he prohibited all common soldiers from appearing armed within the walls; the country towns were protected from all injury throughout and without distinction, whether they had given him a friendly or hostile reception.  When the mutinous garrison surrendered Corfinium late in the evening, he in the face of every military consideration postponed the occupation of the town till the following morning,