knowledge that his soldiers were devoted to him. Still, even so, they
strove to set his followers at variance with one another and with him.
They did not wish to approve and honor all of them, for fear they should
fill them with too great conceit, nor again to dishonor and neglect all,
for fear they should alienate them the more and as a consequence force
them to agree together. Hence they adopted a middle course, and by
approving some of them and others not, by allowing some to wear an olive
garland at the festivals and others not, and furthermore by voting to
some money to the extent of twenty-five hundred denarii and to others
not a farthing, they hoped to bring about between them and by that means
weaken them. [-41-] Those charged with these commissions also they sent
not to Caesar but to the men in the field. He became enraged at this, but
nominally allowed the envoys to mix with the army without his presence,
though he sent word beforehand that no answer should be given and that
he himself should be at once sent for. So when he came into the camp and
joined them in listening to the despatches, he succeeded in conciliating
them much more by that very action. Those who had been preferred in honor
were not so delighted at this precedence as they were suspicious of the
affair, particularly as a result of Caesar's influence. And those who had
been slighted were not at all angry at their comrades, but added their
doubts of the sincerity of the decrees, imputing their dishonor to all
and sharing their anger with them. The people in the City, on learning
this, though frightened did not even so appoint him consul, for which he
was most anxious, but granted him the distinction of consular honors, so
that he might now record his vote along with the ex-consuls. When he took
no account of this, they voted that he should be made a praetor of the
first rank and subsequently also consul. In this way did they think they
had handled Caesar cleverly as if he were in reality a mere youth and
child, as they were always repeating. He, however, was exceedingly vexed
at their general behavior and especially at this very fact that he was