He had, however, to discover that if to change over to Caesar was the safer course, to turn a political somersault once more, to try and undermine the work of the master, meant simply ruin.  We have the story of his sixth and last transformation from Caesar himself, who was not, however, in Italy at the time.[199] Credit in Italy had been seriously upset by the outbreak of Civil War, and Caesar had been at much pains to steady it by an ordinance which has been alluded to in the last chapter.[200] In 48 Caelius was praetor; in the master’s absence he suddenly took up the cause of the debtors, and tried to evoke appeals against the decisions of his colleague Trebonius,—­a great lawyer and a just man.  Failing in this, he started as a downright revolutionary, proposing first the abolition of house-rent, and finally the abolition of all debts; and Milo, in exile at Massilia, was summoned to help him to raise Italy against Caesar.  This was too much, and both were quickly caught and killed as they were stirring up gladiators and other slave-bands among the latifundia of South Italy.

Caelius’ letters give us a chance of seeing what that life of the Forum really was which so fascinated the young men of the day, and some of the old, such as Cicero himself.  We can see these children playing on the very edge of the crater, like the French noblesse before the Revolution.  In both cases there was a semi-consciousness that the eruption was not far off,—­but they went on playing.  What was it that so greatly amused and pleased them?

What Caelius is always writing of is mainly elections and canvassing, accusations and trials, games and shows.  Elections he treats as pure sport, as a kind of enjoyable gambling, or as a means of spiting some one whom you want to annoy.  With elections accusations were often connected:  if a man were accused before his election he could not continue to stand; if condemned after it he was disqualified; here were ways in which personal spite might deprive him of success at the last moment.[201] Accusations, too were of course the best means by which an ambitious young man could come to the front.  The whole number of trials mentioned by Caelius is astonishing; sometimes there is such a complication of them as is difficult to follow.  Every one is ready to lay an accusation, without the smallest regard for truth.  Young Appius Claudius accuses Servilius, and makes a mess of the attack, while the praetor mismanages the conduct of the trial, so that nothing comes of it; but finally Appius is himself accused by the Servilii de vi, in order to keep him from further attacks on Servilius![202] Appius the father quarrelled with Caelius and egged on others to accuse him, though he was curule aedile at the time.  “Their impudence was so boundless that they secured that an information should be laid against me for a very serious crime (under the Scantinian law).  Scarcely had Pola got the words out of his mouth, when I laid an information under the same law against the censor, Appius.  I never saw a more successful stroke!"[203]