administer the rest of the State as they mutually agreed, after securing to Caesar the authority which the lot had given him.  Now Pompeius did all this through unbounded love of power; but to the old vice of Crassus, his avarice, there was now added a new passion, ambition for trophies and triumphs excited by the great exploits of Caesar, since it was in this alone that he was Caesar’s inferior; for he had the superiority in everything else; and his passion remitted not nor diminished till it resulted in an inglorious death and public misfortunes.  Caesar had come down from Gaul to the city of Luca, and many of the Romans went to him there, and Pompeius and Crassus had private conferences with him, in which they agreed to take affairs in hand more vigorously, and to hold the whole power of the State at their disposal, to which end Caesar was to remain in his military command, and Pompeius and Crassus were to have other provinces and armies.  To this object there was only one road, which was to ask for a second consulship, and Caesar was to assist them in their canvass by writing to his friends and sending many of his soldiers to support them at the comitia.

XV.  As soon as Crassus and Pompeius[49] returned to Rome, suspicion was excited, and there was much talk through the whole city that their meeting had been held for no good.  In the Senate Marcellinus and Domitius asked Pompeius if he intended to be a candidate for the consulship, to which Pompeius replied that perhaps he should, and perhaps he should not; being asked again, he said that he was a candidate for the votes of the good citizens, but not a candidate for the votes of the bad.  It was considered that Pompeius had made a haughty and arrogant answer; but Crassus said, in a more modest tone, that he would be a candidate, if it was for the interest of the State; if it was not, he would decline.  This encouraged certain persons to become candidates, among whom was Domitius.  However, when Pompeius and Crassus had openly declared themselves candidates, the rest were afraid and withdrew; but Domitius was encouraged by Cato, who was his kinsman and friend, and stimulated and urged him to stick to his hopes, with the view of defending the common liberties; he said “it was not the consulship that Pompeius and Crassus wanted, but a tyranny; that their conduct showed they were not asking for the consulship, but aiming to seize on the provinces and the armies.”  By such arguments, which were also his real opinions, Cato, all but by force, brought Domitius to the Forum, and many sided with them.  And those who were surprised at the canvassing of Pompeius and Crassus were no small number.  “Why then do they want a second consulship?  And why do they wish to be colleagues again?  And why will they not have the consulship with other colleagues?  There are many men among us who are surely not unworthy to be colleagues with Crassus and Pompeius.”  This alarmed the partizans of Pompeius, who now abstained from no proceeding,