like a monarch receiving a deputation of his subjects.  The incident would not seem to be in itself of any great importance, but, considered as an indication of Caesar’s designs, it attracted great attention, and produced a very general excitement.  The act was adroitly managed so as to be somewhat equivocal in its character, in order that it might be represented one way or the other on the following day, according as the indications of public sentiment might incline.  Some said that Caesar was intending to rise, but was prevented, and held down by those who stood around him.  Others said that an officer motioned to him to rise, but he rebuked his interference by a frown, and continued his seat.  Thus while, in fact, he received the Roman Senate as their monarch and sovereign, his own intentions and designs in so doing were left somewhat in doubt, in order to avoid awakening a sudden and violent opposition.

[Sidenote:  Caesar’s statute crowned.]

Not long after this, as he was returning in public from some great festival, the streets being full of crowds, and the populace following him in great throngs with loud acclamations, a man went up to his statue as he passed it, and placed upon the head of it a laurel crown, fastened with a white ribbon, which was a badge of royalty.  Some officers ordered the ribbon to be taken down, and sent the man to prison.  Caesar was very much displeased with the officers, and dismissed them from their office.  He wished, he said, to have the opportunity to disavow, himself, such claims, and not to have others disavow them for him.

[Sidenote:  Caesar’s disavowals.]

Caesar’s disavowals were, however, so faint, and people had so little confidence in their sincerity, that the cases became more and more frequent in which the titles and symbols of royalty were connected with his name.  The people who wished to gain his favor saluted him in public with the name of Rex, the Latin word for king.  He replied that his name was Caesar, not Rex, showing, however, no other signs of displeasure.  On one great occasion, a high public officer, a near relative of his, repeatedly placed a diadem upon his head, Caesar himself, as often as he did it, gently putting it off.  At last he sent the diadem away to a temple that was near, saying that there was no king in Rome but Jupiter.  In a word, all his conduct indicated that he wished to have it appear that the people were pressing the crown upon him, when he himself was steadily refusing it.

[Sidenote:  Some willing to make Caesar king.] [Sidenote:  Others oppose it.]