This state of things produced a very strong and universal, though suppressed excitement in the city.  Parties were formed.  Some began to be willing to make Caesar king; others were determined to hazard their lives to prevent it.  None dared, however, openly to utter their sentiments on either side.  They expressed them by mysterious looks and dark intimations.  At the time when Caesar refused to rise to receive the Senate, many of the members withdrew in silence, and with looks of offended dignity When the crown was placed upon his statue or upon his own brow, a portion of the populace would applaud with loud acclamations; and whenever he disavowed these acts, either by words or counter-actions of his own, an equally loud acclamation would arise from the other side.  On the whole, however, the idea that Caesar was gradually advancing toward the kingdom steadily gained ground.

[Sidenote:  Caesar’s pretexts.] [Sidenote:  His assumed humility.]

And yet Caesar himself spoke frequently with great humility in respect to his pretensions and claims; and when he found public sentiment turning against the ambitious schemes he seems secretly to have cherished, he would present some excuse or explanation for his conduct plausible enough to answer the purpose of a disavowal.  When he received the Senate, sitting like a king, on the occasion before referred to, when they read to him the decrees which they had passed in his favor, he replied to them that there was more need of diminishing the public honors which he received than of increasing them.  When he found, too, how much excitement his conduct on that occasion had produced, he explained it by saying that he had retained his sitting posture on account of the infirmity of his health, as it made him dizzy to stand.  He thought, probably, that these pretexts would tend to quiet the strong and turbulent spirits around him, from whose envy or rivalry he had most to fear, without at all interfering with the effect which the act itself would have produced upon the masses of the population.  He wished, in a word, to accustom them to see him assume the position and the bearing of a sovereign, while, by his apparent humility in his intercourse with those immediately around him, he avoided as much as possible irritating and arousing the jealous and watchful rivals who were next to him in power.

[Sidenote:  Progress of Caesar’s plans.]

If this were his plan, it seemed to be advancing prosperously toward its accomplishment.  The population of the city seemed to become more and more familiar with the idea that Caesar was about to become a king.  The opposition which the idea had at first awakened appeared to subside, or, at least, the public expression of it, which daily became more and more determined and dangerous, was restrained.  At length the time arrived when it appeared safe to introduce the subject to the Roman Senate.  This, of course, was a hazardous experiment.  It was managed, however, in a very adroit and ingenious manner.