Crassus, when you hear of my capture!" But afterwards, at least, they
were on friendly terms, and, when Cæsar was going to Iberia, as
prætor,[24] and had no money in consequence of his creditors having
come upon him and seizing all his outfit, Crassus did not leave him in
this difficulty, but got him released, by becoming security for him to
the amount of eight hundred and thirty talents. When all Rome became
divided into three parties,--that of Pompeius, Cæsar and
Crassus,--(for Cato[25] had more reputation than power, and was more
admired than followed), the sober and conservative part of the
citizens adhered to Pompeius; the violent and those who were lightly
moved, were led by the hopes that they had from Cæsar; Crassus, by
keeping a middle position, used both parties for his purposes, and, as
he very often changed in his political views, he was neither a firm
friend nor an irreconcilable enemy, but he would readily give up
either his friendship or his enmity on calculation of interest; so
that within a short interval, he often came forward to speak both for
and against the same men and the same measures. He had also great
influence, both because he was liked and feared, but mainly because he
was feared. Accordingly Sicinius,[26] who was the most violent in his
attacks on the magistrates and popular leaders of the day, in reply to
one who asked, "Why Crassus was the only person whom he did not worry,
and why he let him alone?" said, "That he had hay on his horn:" now,
the Romans were accustomed to tie some hay round the horn of an ox
that butted, as a warning to those who might meet it.

VIII. The insurrection of the gladiators and their devastation of
Italy, which is generally called the war of Spartacus,[27] originated
as follows:--One Lentulus Batiates kept gladiators in Capua, of whom
the majority, who were Gauls and Thracians, had been closely confined,
not for any misbehaviour on their part, but through the villainy of