[Sidenote: Caesar's extravagances.]
[Sidenote: His embarrassments.]

He soon, by these means, not only exhausted all his own pecuniary
resources, but plunged himself enormously into debt. It was not
difficult for such a man in those days to procure an almost unlimited
credit for such purposes as these, for every one knew that, if he
finally succeeded in placing himself, by means of the popularity thus
acquired, in stations of power, he could soon indemnify himself and all
others who had aided him. The peaceful merchants, and artisans, and
husbandmen of the distant provinces over which he expected to rule,
would yield the revenues necessary to fill the treasuries thus
exhausted. Still, Caesar's expenditures were so lavish, and the debts he
incurred were so enormous, that those who had not the most unbounded
confidence in his capacity and his powers believed him irretrievably
ruined.

The particulars, however, of these difficulties, and the manner in which
Caesar contrived to extricate himself from them, will be more fully
detailed in the next chapter.



CHAPTER III.

ADVANCEMENT TO THE CONSULSHIP.

[Sidenote: Caesar's rise to power.]