worthlessness of all they saw in this wretched hamlet, Caesar's friends
were wondering whether the jealousy, rivalry, and ambition which reigned
among men every where else in the world could find any footing there,
when Caesar told them that, for his part, he should rather choose to be
first in such a village as that than the second at Rome. The story has
been repeated a thousand times, and told to every successive generation
now for nearly twenty centuries, as an illustration of the peculiar type
and character of the ambition which controls such a soul as that
of Caesar.

[Sidenote: Caesar's ambition.]

Caesar was very successful in the administration of his province; that
is to say, he returned in a short time with considerable military glory,
and with money enough to pay all his debts, and famish him with means
for fresh electioneering.

[Sidenote: Manner of choosing the consuls.]
[Sidenote: Pompey and Crassus.]

He now felt strong enough to aspire to the office of consul, which was
the highest office of the Roman state. When the line of kings had been
deposed, the Romans had vested the supreme magistracy in the hands of
two consuls, who were chosen annually in a general election, the
formalities of which were all very carefully arranged. The current of
popular opinion was, of course, in Caesar's favor, but he had many
powerful rivals and enemies among the great, who, however, hated and
opposed each other as well as him. There was at that time a very bitter
feud between Pompey and Crassus, each of them struggling for power
against the efforts of the other. Pompey possessed great influence