He went to Spain by land, passing through Switzerland on the way.  He stopped with his attendants one night at a very insignificant village of shepherds’ huts among the mountains.  Struck with the poverty and worthlessness of all they saw in this wretched hamlet, Caesar’s friends were wondering whether the jealousy, rivalry, and ambition which reigned among men every where else in the world could find any footing there, when Caesar told them that, for his part, he should rather choose to be first in such a village as that than the second at Rome.  The story has been repeated a thousand times, and told to every successive generation now for nearly twenty centuries, as an illustration of the peculiar type and character of the ambition which controls such a soul as that of Caesar.

[Sidenote:  Caesar’s ambition.]

Caesar was very successful in the administration of his province; that is to say, he returned in a short time with considerable military glory, and with money enough to pay all his debts, and famish him with means for fresh electioneering.

[Sidenote:  Manner of choosing the consuls.] [Sidenote:  Pompey and Crassus.]

He now felt strong enough to aspire to the office of consul, which was the highest office of the Roman state.  When the line of kings had been deposed, the Romans had vested the supreme magistracy in the hands of two consuls, who were chosen annually in a general election, the formalities of which were all very carefully arranged.  The current of popular opinion was, of course, in Caesar’s favor, but he had many powerful rivals and enemies among the great, who, however, hated and opposed each other as well as him.  There was at that time a very bitter feud between Pompey and Crassus, each of them struggling for power against the efforts of the other.  Pompey possessed great influence through his splendid abilities and his military renown.  Crassus, as has already been stated, was powerful through his wealth.  Caesar, who had some influence with them both, now conceived the bold design of reconciling them, and then of availing himself of their united aid in accomplishing his own particular ends.

[Sidenote:  The first triumvirate.]

He succeeded perfectly well in this management.  He represented to them that, by contending against each other, they only exhausted their own powers, and strengthened the arms of their common enemies.  He proposed to them to unite with one another and with him, and thus make common cause to promote their common interest and advancement.  They willingly acceded to this plan, and a triple league was accordingly formed, in which they each bound themselves to promote, by every means in his power, the political elevation of the others, and not to take any public step or adopt any measures without the concurrence of the three.  Caesar faithfully observed the obligations of this league so long as he could use his two associates to promote his own ends, and then he abandoned it.