rivals. And that he _did_ enter that arena constructively, and by
secret design, from his very earliest manhood, may be gathered from this--
that he suffered no openings towards a revolution, provided they had any
hope in them, to escape his participation. It is familiarly known that he
was engaged pretty deeply in the conspiracy of Catiline, [Footnote:
Suetonius, speaking of this conspiracy, says, that Caesar was _nominatos
inter socios Catilinae_, which has been erroneously understood to mean
that he was _talked of_ as an accomplice; but in fact, as Casaubon
first pointed out, _nominatus_ is a technical term of the Roman
jurisprudence, and means that he was formally denounced.] and that he
incurred considerable risk on that occasion; but it is less known, and has
indeed escaped the notice of historians generally, that he was a party to
at least two other conspiracies. There was even a fourth, meditated by
Crassus, which Caesar so far encouraged as to undertake a journey to Rome
from a very distant quarter, merely with a view to such chances as it
might offer to him; but as it did not, upon examination, seem to him a
very promising scheme, he judged it best to look coldly upon it, or not to
embark in it by any personal co-operation. Upon these and other facts we
build our inference--that the scheme of a revolution was the one great
purpose of Caesar, from his first entrance upon public life. Nor does it
appear that he cared much by whom it was undertaken, provided only there
seemed to be any sufficient resources for carrying it through, and for
sustaining the first collision with the regular forces of the existing
government. He relied, it seems, on his own personal superiority for
raising him to the head of affairs eventually, let who would take the
nominal lead at first. To the same result, it will be found, tended the
vast stream of Caesar's liberalities. From the senator downwards to the
lowest _faex Romuli_, he had a hired body of dependents, both in and
out of Rome, equal in numbers to a nation. In the provinces, and in
distant kingdoms, he pursued the same schemes. Every where he had a body