consul's resentment, he fell on his knees. And upon Cicero's lamenting
in some trial the miserable condition of the times, he the very same day,
by nine o'clock, transferred his enemy, Publius Clodius, from a patrician
to a plebeian family; a change which he had long solicited in vain [46].
At last, effectually to intimidate all those of the opposite party, he by
great rewards prevailed upon Vettius to declare, that he had been
solicited by certain persons to assassinate Pompey; and when he was
brought before the rostra to name those who had been concerted between
them, after naming one or two to no purpose, not without great suspicion
of subornation, Caesar, despairing of success in this rash stratagem, is
supposed to have taken off his informer by poison.

XXI. About the same time he married Calpurnia, the daughter of Lucius
Piso, who was to succeed him in the consulship, and gave his own daughter
Julia to Cneius Pompey; rejecting Servilius Caepio, to whom she had been
contracted, and by whose means chiefly he had but a little before baffled
Bibulus. After this new alliance, he began, upon any debates in the
senate, to ask Pompey's opinion first, whereas he used before to give
that distinction to Marcus Crassus; and it was (15) the usual practice
for the consul to observe throughout the year the method of consulting
the senate which he had adopted on the calends (the first) of January.

XXII. Being, therefore, now supported by the interest of his
father-in-law and son-in-law, of all the provinces he made choice of Gaul,
as most likely to furnish him with matter and occasion for triumphs. At
first indeed he received only Cisalpine-Gaul, with the addition of
Illyricum, by a decree proposed by Vatinius to the people; but soon
afterwards obtained from the senate Gallia-Comata [47] also, the senators
being apprehensive, that if they should refuse it him, that province,
also, would be granted him by the people. Elated now with his success, he