Page:Cicero And The Fall Of The Roman Republic.djvu/194

164 from the exercise of their magisterial functions. Cæsar after a show of resistance submitted and shut himself up in his own house, and the Senate soon afterwards relieved him from his disabilities. Metellus declared that he was under stress of violence, and fled for protection to Pompey's camp.

Cicero's brilliant success as consul had raised him at once to a place amongst the foremost statesmen of Rome. Cato made the first use of his new power as tribune to summon an assembly in which amidst the applause of the multitude he saluted Cicero as "the father of his country." The precedent was followed in later days in favour of the emperors, and the appellation came to be an official title. When Cicero retired from office and took his seat among the consulars at the beginning of the year 62 B.C., the new consuls asked his opinion first in their consultation of the Senate. His principles and line of policy are to be explained by the changes in the relation of parties which had occurred during the last seven years. The bond between the equestrian order and the democrats, who were equally hostile to the constitution of Sulla, had naturally been loosened by their joint victory. The Knights had now recovered their place in the jury-courts and their seats in the theatre, and had for the present no special grievance against the Senate; the barrier of aristocratic exclusiveness had been forced by Cicero's election to the consulship, and everything tended towards a reconciliation between the first and he second order in the State.