had already been Quaestor); and on his return (B.C. 60) reconciled
Crassus, the head of the moneyed interest, with Pompey, the darling
of the Army, and by their united influence was raised next year to the
Consulship.

A. 8.--A Roman Consul invariably, after the expiration of his year of
office, was sent as Pro-consul to take charge of one of the Provinces,
practically having a good deal of personal say as to which should be
assigned to him. Caesar thus chose for his proconsular government the
district of Gaul then under Roman dominion, _i.e._ the valley of the
Po, and that of the Rhone. In making this choice Caesar was actuated
by the fact that in Gaul he was more likely than anywhere else to come
in for active service. Unquiet neighbours on the frontier, Germans and
Helvetians, were threatening invasion, and would have to be repelled.
And this would give the Pro-consul the chance of doing what Caesar
specially desired, of raising and training an army which he might make
as devoted to himself as were Pompey's veterans to their brilliant
chieftain--the hero "as beautiful as he was brave, as good as he was
beautiful." Without such a force Caesar foresaw that all his efforts
to redress the abuses of the State would be in vain. As Consul he had
carried certain small instalments of reform; but they had made him
more hated than ever by the classes at whose corruption they were
aimed, and might any day be overthrown. And neither Pompey nor Crassus
were in any way to be depended upon for his plans in this direction.

A. 9.--Events proved kinder to him than he could have hoped. His
ill-wishers at Rome actually aided his preparations for war; for
Caesar had not yet gained any special military reputation, while
the barbarians whom he was to meet had a very high one, and might
reasonably be expected to destroy him. And the Helvetian peril proved