expected, since the attentions and the praises which he had bestowed
upon them, though at first they tended to awaken their ambition, and to
inspire them with redoubled ardor and courage, ended, as such favoritism
always does, in making them vain, self-important, and unreasonable. Led
on thus by the tenth legion, the whole army mutinied. They broke up the
camp where they had been stationed at some distance beyond the walls of
Rome, and marched toward the city. Soldiers in a mutiny, even though
headed by their subaltern officers, are very little under command; and
these Roman troops, feeling released from their usual restraints,
committed various excesses on the way, terrifying the inhabitants and
spreading universal alarm. The people of the city were thrown into utter
consternation at the approach of the vast horde, which was coming like a
terrible avalanche to descend upon them.

[Sidenote: Plan of the soldiers.]

The army expected some signs of resistance at the gates, which, if
offered, they were prepared to encounter and overcome. Their plan was,
after entering the city, to seek Caesar and demand their discharge from
his service. They knew that he was under the necessity of immediately
making a campaign in Africa, and that, of course, he could not possibly,
as they supposed, dispense with them. He would, consequently, if they
asked their discharge, beg them to remain, and, to induce them to do it,
would comply with all their expectations and desires.

Such was their plan. To tender, however, a resignation of an office as a
means of bringing an opposite party to terms, is always a very hazardous
experiment. We easily overrate the estimation in which our own services
are held taking what is said to us in kindness or courtesy by friends
as the sober and deliberate judgment of the public; and thus it often