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50 B.C.] to entertain. The true cause of quarrel of course lay deeper. Cæsar had acquired so strong a position that, if he were again consul, he would be practically master of the State, and he had given such abundant evidence of his unscrupulousness that the constitutionalists had good grounds for supposing that he would use his power to destroy the Republic. With the help of Pompey, they now thought themselves strong enough to prevent this; Cæsar with a juster appreciation believed that the chances of war were in his favour. Thus both sides were strongly inclined to fight, and the proposals for compromise were not so much serious attempts at a tolerable settlement, as contrivances of each party to put the other in the wrong and to toss to and fro the responsibility for breaking the peace.

When Cicero left Italy for his province in June, 51, he seems to have recognised that the Republic ran some danger from Cæsar, but not that there was the prospect of actual armed attack. He pictures Cæsar as consul in Rome and attempting all sorts of revolutionary measures, but believes that the presence of Pompey will be sufficient to hold him in check. Thus he strongly objects to a notion which Pompey was entertaining at the time, that he should retire to his Spanish province. On his outward journey (May, 51 B.C.) Cicero visited Pompey, and at his request passed some days at his Tarentine