§18Ex praetura ulteriorem sortitus Hispaniam retinentes creditores interuentu sponsorum remouit ac neque more neque iure, ante quam prouinciae ornarentur, profectus est: incertum metune iudicii, quod priuato parabatur, an quo maturius sociis inplorantibus subueniret;
Having obtained by lot the province of Farther Spain after his praetorship, Caesar removed the creditors who were detaining him through the intervention of sureties, and set out before his province was provided for, contrary to both custom and law: it is uncertain whether through fear of a prosecution, which was being prepared against him as a private citizen, or in order to bring swifter aid to the allies who were imploring help.
pacataque prouincia pari festinatione, non expectato successore ad triumphum simul consulatumque decessit.
Having pacified the province, with equal haste and without waiting for a successor, he departed for Rome to seek both a triumph and the consulship at the same time.
sed cum edictis iam comitis ratio eius haberi non posset nisi priuatus introisset urbem, et ambienti ut legibus solueretur multi contra dicerent, coactus est triumphum, ne consulatu excluderetur, dimittere.
But since, because the comitia had already been proclaimed, his candidacy could not be taken into account unless he entered the city as a private citizen, and many opposed him when he campaigned to be exempted from the laws, he was forced to give up his triumph so that he might not be excluded from the consulship.
§19e duobus consulatus competitoribus, Lucio Lucceio Marcoque Bibulo, Lucceium sibi adiunxit, pactus ut is, quoniam inferior gratia esset pecuniaque polleret, nummos de suo communi nomine per centurias pronuntiaret.
Of the two competitors for the consulship, Lucius Lucceius and Marcus Bibulus, he joined Lucceius to himself, bargaining that since Lucceius was inferior in influence but powerful in wealth, he should promise money to the centuries from their common name out of his own pocket.
qua cognita re optimates, quos metus ceperat nihil non ausurum eum in summo magistratu concordi et consentiente collega, auctores Bibulo fuerunt tantundem pollicendi, ac plerique pecunias contulerunt, ne Catone quidem abnuente eam largitionem e re publica fieri.
When this transaction became known, the optimates, who were seized by the fear that there was nothing he would not dare in the highest office with a harmonious and consenting colleague, urged Bibulus to promise just as much, and most of them contributed money, with not even Cato denying that this bribery was being done for the good of the republic.
Igitur cum Bibulo consul creatur.
Therefore, he was elected consul along with Bibulus.
eandem ob causam opera ab optimatibus data est, ut prouinciae futuris consulibus minimi negotii, id est siluae callesque, decernerentur.
For the same reason, the optimates took care that provinces of the least business, that is, forests and pastures, should be decreed to the future consuls.
qua maxime iniuria instinctus omnibus officiis Gnaeum Pompeium adsectatus est offensum patribus, quod Mithridate rege uicto cunctantius confirmarentur acta sua; Pompeioque Marcum Crassum reconciliauit ueterem inimicum ex consulatu, quem summa discordia simul gesserant; ac societatem cum utroque iniit, ne quid ageretur in re publica, quod displicuisset ulli e tribus.
Stirred up especially by this insult, he courted with every kind of attention Gnaeus Pompey, who was offended at the senators because they were rather slow to confirm his acts after his victory over King Mithridates; and he reconciled Marcus Crassus to Pompey, an old enemy since their joint consulship, which they had run in the greatest discord; and he entered into an alliance with both, so that nothing should be done in the republic which displeased any of the three.
§20inito honore primus omnium instituit, ut tam senatus quam populi diurna acta confierent et publicarentur.
Having entered office, he was the first of all to establish that the daily acts both of the senate and of the people should be compiled and published.
antiquum etiam rettulit morem, ut quo mense fasces non haberet, accensus ante eum iret, lictores pone sequerentur.
He also restored an ancient custom, that in the month in which he did not have the fasces, an accensus should go before him, while the lictors followed behind.
lege autem agraria promulgata obnuntiantem collegam armis foro expulit ac postero die in senatu conquestum nec quoquam reperto, qui super tali consternatione referre aut censere aliquid auderet, qualia multa saepe in leuioribus turbis decreta erant, in eam coegit desperationem, ut, quoad potestate abiret, domo abditus nihil aliud quam per edicta obnuntiaret.
Furthermore, when the agrarian law was promulgated, he expelled his colleague, who was announcing unfavorable omens, from the Forum by force of arms; and on the following day, when Bibulus complained in the senate and not a single person was found who dared to make a report or express an opinion upon such a consternation, although many such decrees had often been made in more trivial disturbances, Caesar drove him to such despair that, until he retired from office, he remained hidden at home, doing nothing else than announcing unfavorable omens through edicts.
Vnus ex eo tempore omnia in re publica et ad arbitrium administrauit, ut nonnulli urbanorum, cum quid per iocum testandi gratia signarent, non Caesare et Bibulo, sed Iulio et Caesare consulibus actum scriberent bis eundem praeponentes nomine atque cognomine, utque uulgo mox ferrentur hi uersus:
non Bibulo quiddam nuper sed Caesare factum est:
nam Bibulo fieri consule nil memini. campum Stellatem maioribus consecratum agrumque Campanum ad subsidia rei publicae uectigalem relictum diuisit extra sortem ad uiginti milibus ciuium, quibus terni pluresue liberi essent.
From that time on, he alone administered everything in the republic and according to his own will, so that some of the citizens, when they signed anything by way of a joke for the purpose of witnessing, wrote that it was done not "in the consulship of Caesar and Bibulus," but "in the consulship of Julius and Caesar," putting the same man twice by his first name and family name; and soon these verses were commonly repeated: "A certain thing was done recently not under Bibulus, but under Caesar; for I remember nothing being done when Bibulus was consul." He distributed the Stellatian plain, which had been consecrated by their ancestors, and the Campanian land, which had been left subject to tax for the support of the republic, without casting lots, to about twenty thousand citizens who had three or more children.
publicanos remissionem petentis tertia mercedum parte releuauit ac, ne in locatione nouorum uectigalium inmoderatius licerentur, propalam monuit.
He relieved the publicans who were petitioning for a reduction by a third part of their contract price, and publicly warned them not to bid too immoderately in the leasing of new taxes.
cetera item, quae cuique libuissent, dilargitus est contra dicente nullo ac, si conaretur quis, absterrito.
He also lavishly distributed all other things which pleased anyone, with no one speaking against him, and if anyone attempted to do so, he was terrified.
Marcum Catonem interpellantem extrahi curia per lictorem ducique in carcerem iussit.
He ordered Marcus Cato, who was interrupting him, to be dragged out of the senate-house by a lictor and led to prison.
Lucio Lucullo liberius resistenti tantum calumniarum metum iniecit, ut ad genua ultro sibi accideret.
He inspired so much fear of false accusations in Lucius Lucullus, who was resisting too freely, that Lucullus voluntarily fell at his knees.
Cicerone in iudicio quodam deplorante temporum statum Publium Clodium inimicum eius, frustra iam pridem a patribus ad plebem transire nitentem, eodem die horaque nona transduxit.
When Cicero in a certain trial was deploring the state of the times, Caesar transferred Publius Clodius, his enemy, who had long been striving in vain to pass from the patricians to the plebeians, on that very day at the ninth hour.
postremo in uniuersos diuersae factionis indicem inductum praemiis, ut se de inferenda Pompeio nece sollicitatum a quibusdam profiteretur productusque pro rostris auctores ex conpacto nominaret; sed uno atque altero frustra nec sine suspicione fraudis nominatis desperans tam praecipitis consilii euentum intercepisse ueneno indicem creditur.
Finally, against all those of the opposite faction, he induced an informer by rewards to confess that he had been solicited by certain persons to bring about the death of Pompey, and having produced him before the rostra, to name the instigators according to agreement; but when one or two had been named in vain and not without suspicion of fraud, despairing of the outcome of so rash a plan, he is believed to have taken off the informer by poison.