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strong to be safely resisted. Cicero afterwards remarked with truth that, as the day of the battle of Allia, not that on which the Gauls entered Rome, was marked as the black day in the Roman Calendar, so this compact should be regarded as the fatal epoch, rather than the Civil War which was merely its sequel.

Meantime the temptation of Cæsar's offers was too strong for Pompey. He must have suffered keenly during the months in which he had been worried and thwarted by the senseless and ungrateful opposition of the Nobles, and now his patience was worn out, and, come what might, he was resolved to be even with the pack of them and to carry his measures in their despite. Pompey's surrender dealt a fatal blow to Cicero's ideal party, and indeed to Cicero's position as an independent statesman. For the next eight years we shall find Roman politics dominated by the coalition, and when that coalition breaks up all controversies have to be decided on the battle-field. Cicero becomes almost powerless, and his statesmanship suffers an eclipse, from which it fully emerges only after Cæsar's death.

Cæsar entered on his consulship on the Ist of January, 59, and at once proceeded to carry out the engagements into which he had entered. Of the bills which he announced only one was of the nature of a legislative reform. This was the "Lex Julia Repetundarum" which consolidated and amended the laws against extortion in the provinces. His other proposals were