Page:A General Sketch of Political History from the Earlist Times.djvu/116

 104 THE ROMAN DOMINION state which was not yet formally included in the Roman dominion. During the absence of Pompeius in the east, Rome was able to congratulate herself on the suppression of a great Catiline, conspiracy of the extreme section of the popular 63 B.C. party. Neither Crassus nor Caesar can be proved to have taken a share in the schemes of Catiline, though both were strongly suspected of complicity. Catiline, however, appears to have aimed simply at a violent revolution with a redistribution of property as its main object. Such a design could not have been favourably viewed by Crassus, and could hardly have appealed to the ambitions of Caesar. The plot was betrayed j Catiline's followers rose in arms, but they were few in number, and were crushed after a fierce engagement in which no quarter was given. Catiline himself fell in the fight, and those of his party who were captured were executed by a stretching of the prerogatives of the Senate, against which Caesar duly protested. Nevertheless, the great orator Cicero, who was consul at the time, was careful emphatically to acquit Caesar of any complicity. The nomination of Pompey to the extraordinary commands of the east, carrying with them almost unprecedented powers, was a long step towards the creation of a military monarchy ; although Pompey himself had no inclination to grasp at empire. At the moment of Pompey's return Caesar departed to Spain as propraetor; on his return he found Pompey had failed to please any of the parties of the state, and he promptly Rise of drew both Pompey and Crassus into alliance with Julius Caesar, himself. With their support he succeeded, having secured the consulship, in passing measures calculated to secure the support of the populace and of the Equestrian Order j while for himself he secured the governorship of Cisalpine Gaul for five years on the termination of his consulship. This command was subsequently extended for a second period of five years. These years were occupied in the steady subjuga- tion of the whole of Gaul, and two incidental visits to the shores of Britain, where however he made no attempt at a conquest. Meanwhile, Crassus received a five years' command in the east,