him, also, that a young man capable of assuming an attitude so bold might
be dangerous to the rickety institutions which he had constructed so
carefully. He tried coercion. He deprived Caesar of his priesthood. He
took his wife's dowry from him, and confiscated the estate which he had
inherited from his father. When this produced no effect, the rebellious
youth was made over to the assassins, and a price was set upon his head.
He fled into concealment. He was discovered once, and escaped only by
bribing Sylla's satellites. His fate would soon have overtaken him, but he
had powerful relations, whom Sylla did not care to offend. Aurelius Cotta,
who was perhaps his mother's brother, Mamercus Aemilius, a distinguished
patrician, and singularly also the College of the Vestal Virgins,
interceded for his pardon. The Dictator consented at last, but with
prophetic reluctance. "Take him," he said at length, "since you will have
it so--but I would have you know that the youth for whom you are so
earnest will one day overthrow the aristocracy, for whom you and I have
fought so hardly; in this young Caesar there are many Mariuses." [7]
Caesar, not trusting too much to Sylla's forbearance, at once left Italy,
and joined the army in Asia. The little party of young men who had grown
up together now separated, to meet in the future on altered terms. Caesar
held to his inherited convictions, remaining constant through good and
evil to the cause of his uncle Marius. His companion Cicero, now ripening
into manhood, chose the other side. With his talents for his inheritance,
and confident in the consciousness of power, but with weak health and a
neck as thin as a woman's, Cicero felt that he had a future before him,
but that his successes must be won by other weapons than arms. He chose
the bar for his profession; he resolved to make his way into popularity as
a pleader before the Senate courts and in the Forum. He looked to the
Senate itself as the ultimate object of his ambition. There alone he could
hope to be distinguished, if distinguished he was to be.