the ordinary rule. He saw in the occasion an opportunity to give a new
impulse to the popular cause, and to make further progress in gaining
the popular favor. The experiment was successful in this instance too.
The people were pleased at the apparent affection which his action
evinced; and as Cornelia was the daughter of Cinna, he had opportunity,
under pretext of praising the birth and parentage of the deceased, to
laud the men whom Sylla's party had outlawed and destroyed. In a word,
the patrician party saw with anxiety and dread that Caesar was rapidly
consolidating and organizing, and bringing back to its pristine strength
and vigor, a party whose restoration to power would of course involve
their own political, and perhaps personal ruin.

[Sidenote: Caesar in office.]
[Sidenote: Shows and entertainments.]

Caesar began soon to receive appointments to public office, and thus
rapidly increased his influence and power. Public officers and
candidates for office were accustomed in those days to expend great sums
of money in shows and spectacles to amuse the people. Caesar went beyond
all limits in these expenditures. He brought gladiators from distant
provinces, and trained them at great expense, to fight in the enormous
amphitheaters of the city, in the midst of vast assemblies of men. Wild
beasts were procured also from the forests of Africa, and brought over
in great numbers, under his direction, that the people might be
entertained by their combats with captives taken in war, who were
reserved for this dreadful fate. Caesar gave, also, splendid
entertainments, of the most luxurious and costly character, and he
mingled with his guests at these entertainments, and with the people at
large on other occasions, in so complaisant and courteous a manner as to
gain universal favor.