an entirely new government on the ruins of the existing constitution.
Caesar was himself accused of a participation in this plot. When it was
discovered, Catiline himself fled; some of the other conspirators were,
however, arrested, and there was a long and very excited debate in the
Senate on the question of their punishment. Some were for death. Caesar,
however, very earnestly opposed this plan, recommending, instead, the
confiscation of the estates of the conspirators, and their imprisonment
in some of the distant cities of Italy. The dispute grew very warm,
Caesar urging his point with great perseverance and determination, and
with a degree of violence which threatened seriously to obstruct the
proceedings, when a body of armed men, a sort of guard of honor
stationed there, gathered around him, and threatened him with their
swords. Quite a scene of disorder and terror ensued. Some of the
senators arose hastily and fled from the vicinity of Caesar's seat to
avoid the danger. Others, more courageous, or more devoted in their
attachment to him, gathered around him to protect him, as far as they
could, by interposing their bodies between his person and the weapons of
his assailants. Caesar soon left the Senate, and for a long time would
return to it no more.

[Sidenote: Caesar's struggle for the office of pontifex maximus.]

Although Caesar was all this time, on the whole, rising in influence and
power, there were still fluctuations in his fortune, and the tide
sometimes, for a short period, went strongly against him. He was at one
time, when greatly involved in debt, and embarrassed in all his affairs,
a candidate for a very high office, that of Pontifex Maximus, or
sovereign pontiff. The office of the pontifex was originally that of
building and keeping custody of the bridges of the city, the name being
derived from the Latin word _pons_, which signifies bridge. To this,