Page:Cicero And The Fall Of The Roman Republic.djvu/425

45 B.C.] invincible god." These pretensions would have seemed impious to the believers in a dogmatic theology; but this was hardly the case with the Romans; their objection was not so much religious as political. Such conduct in a man was "incivism"; it was to claim submission as to a being of higher nature; it was to arrogate a pre-eminence, injurious and insulting to his fellows.

About the same time when Cæsar was parading his image among the gods, Aurelius Cotta was employed to discover a Sibylline oracle which might justify the Dictator in assuming the title of King. The hurried sentences of a note scribbled to Atticus give us a glimpse of Cicero's feelings. "How I delighted in your letter! but this procession is a bitter business. However, it is well to be kept informed about everything, even about Cotta. Well done the people! that they would not lend a hand even to clap the Victory, because of the bad company she was in. Brutus is here; he wants me to write to Cæsar. I had promised to do so, but now I tell him to look at this procession."

The Ides of March were now drawing on. Cæsar had not allowed the old year to expire without a