Page:Roman Constitutional History, 753-44 B.C..djvu/251

Rh, enacted, moreover, practically in violation of tribunician and collegiate intercession. Nevertheless, the senate did not dare to cancel it. Pompeius and Crassus were elected commissioners, also the great scholar, M. Terentius Varro.

A second agrarian bill, no doubt contemplated from the first, intrusted the same commission with the distribution of the Campanian and Stellatine fields. This rich district, one of the finest in Italy, became once more private property, and Capua obtained the rights of a Roman colony. This was eminently just, and incidentally a reassertion of democratic policy (p. 198). Provision was thus made for twenty thousand citizens.

Withdrawal of Bibulus. — After his recent experiences, Bibulus remained in his house during the rest of the year, merely issuing edicts and announcing that he observed the heavens (de caelo servare) — which ought, however, to have been reported personally. He hoped thus to invalidate all the acts of Caesar. The jokers described the situation, by saying that Graius and Julius were the consuls of the year.

Consolidation of the Triumvirate. — Caesar faithfully carried out the other measures desired by his confederates. He secured by law the remission of one-third of the sums payable by the farmers of the Asiatic revenues, and thereby won the support of the knights. By another law he obtained the confirmation of the ordinances of Pompeius in the East.

Caesar, with his personal charm, soon converted the political combination with Pompeius into an alliance of friendship; and, in order to strengthen it, gave him his only daughter, Julia, in marriage. This was, so to speak, a