[-20-] The people, accordingly, were disagreeably affected by these sights that I have mentioned, and yet they deemed them very few considering the multitude of the captives and the magnitude of Caesar’s accomplishments.  This, as well as the fact that he endured very goodnaturedly the army’s outspoken comments,[88] led them to admire him extremely.  For they made sport of those of their own number appointed to the senate by him and all the other failings of which he was accused:[89] most of all they jested about his love for Cleopatra and his sojourn at the court of Nicomedes, ruler of Bithynia, inasmuch as he had once been at his court when a lad; indeed, they even declared that Caesar had enslaved[90] the Gauls, but Nicomedes Caesar.  Finally, on the top of all the rest they all together with a shout declared that if you do well, you will be punished, but if ill you shall rule.[91] This was meant by them to signify that if Caesar should restore self-government to the people—­which they regarded as just—­and stand trial for the acts he had committed outside the laws, he would even undergo punishment; whereas, if he should cleave to his power,—­which they deemed the course of an unjust person,—­he would continue sole ruler.  As for him, however, he was not displeased at their saying this:  on the contrary he was quite delighted that by such frankness toward him they showed a belief that he would never be angry at it,—­except in so far as their abuse concerned his association with Nicomedes.  At this he was decidedly irritated and evidently pained:  he attempted to defend himself, denying with an oath that the case was such, and after that he incurred the further penalty of laughter.

[-21-] Now on the first day of the festival of victory a portent far from good fell to his lot.  The axle of the triumphal chariot was crushed just opposite the very temple of Fortune built by Lucullus, so that he had to complete the rest of the course in another.  On this occasion, too, he climbed up the stairs of the Capitol on his knees, without noticing at all either the chariot which he had dedicated to Jupiter, or the image of the inhabited world lying beneath his feet, or the inscription upon it:  later on, however, he erased from that inscription the name demi-god.

After this triumphal celebration he entertained the populace splendidly, giving them grain beyond the regular measure and olive oil.  Also, to the multitude which received the present of grain he assigned the seventy-five denarii which he had promised in advance, and twenty-five more, but to the soldiers five hundred in one sum.  Yet he was not merely ostentatious:  in most respects he was very exact; for instance, since the throng receiving doles of grain had for a very long period been growing not by lawful methods of increase but in such ways as are common in popular tumults, he investigated the matter and erased half of their names at one time.