consuls and to Pompey. [-16-] He made these same statements also to the populace, when that body had likewise assembled outside the pomerium, and he sent for corn from the islands and promised each one of them seventy-five denarii.  He hoped to tempt them with this bait.  The men, however, reflected that those who are pursuing certain ends and those who have attained them do not think or act alike:  at the start of their operations they make all the most delightful offers to such as can work against them in any way, but when they succeed in what they wish, they remember nothing at all about it and use against those very persons the power which they have received from them.  They remembered also the behavior of Marius and Sulla,—­how many kind things they had often told them, and then what treatment they had given them in return for their confidence,—­and furthermore perceiving Caesar’s necessity and seeing that his armed followers were many and were everywhere in the city, they were unable either to trust or to be cheered by his words.  On the contrary, as they had fresh in their memory the fear caused by former events, they suspected him also, particularly because the ambassadors apparently intended to initiate a reconciliation were chosen, to be sure, but did not go out.  Indeed, for even making mention of them once Piso, his father-in-law, was severely rebuked. [-17-] The people, far from getting at that time the money which he had promised them, had to give him all the rest that remained in the public coffers for the support of his soldiers, whom they feared.  Amid all these happenings, as being favorable, they wore the garb of peace, which they had not as yet put off.  Lucius Metellus, a tribune, opposed the proposition about the money, and when his efforts proved ineffectual went to the treasury and kept watch of its doors.  The soldiers, paying little heed to either his guarding or his outspokenness, cut through the bar,—­for the consuls had the key, as if it were not possible for persons to use axes in place of it,—­and carried out all the money.  In fact, Caesar’s other projects also, as I have often stated, he both brought to vote and carried out in the same fashion, under the name of democracy,—­the most of them being introduced by Antony,—­but with the substance of despotism.  Both men named their political rivals enemies of their country and declared that they themselves were fighting for the public interests, whereas each really ruined those interests and increased only his own private possessions.

[-18-] After taking these steps Caesar occupied Sardinia and Sicily without a battle, as the governors there at that time withdrew.  Aristobulus he sent home to Palestine to accomplish something against Pompey.  He also allowed the children of those proscribed by Sulla to canvass for office, and arranged everything else both in the city and in the rest of Italy to his own best advantage, so far as circumstances permitted.  Affairs, at home he now committed to Antony’s