they took, in establishing and enforcing a certain organization of
society throughout the world, and in preserving a sort of public order
and peace. They built cities, they constructed aqueducts and roads; they
formed harbors, and protected them by piers and by castles; they
protected commerce, and cultivated the arts, and encouraged literature,
and enforced a general quiet and peace among mankind, allowing of no
violence or war except what they themselves created. Thus they
_governed_ the world, and they felt, as all governors of mankind always
do, fully entitled to supply themselves with the comforts and
conveniences of life, in consideration of the service which they
thus rendered.

[Sidenote: Caesar's policy.]

Of course, it was to be expected that they would sometimes quarrel among
themselves about the spoils. Ambitious men were always arising, eager to
obtain opportunities to make fresh conquests, and to bring home new
supplies, and those who were most successful in making the results of
their conquests available in adding to the wealth and to the public
enjoyments of the city, would, of course, be most popular with the
voters. Hence extortion in the provinces, and the most profuse and
lavish expenditure in the city, became the policy which every great man
must pursue to rise to power.

[Sidenote: His success.]

Caesar entered into this policy with his whole soul, founding all his
hopes of success upon the favor of the populace. Of course, he had many
rivals and opponents among the patrician ranks, and in the Senate, and
they often impeded and thwarted his plans and measures for a time,