strictly party measures. He brought in a bill for the purchase of lands, alike for Pompey's veterans and for the fathers of large families among the poorer citizens. He proposed another bill for the confirmation of Pompey's acts in Asia, and a third remitting part of the sum which the tax-farmers had agreed to pay to the Treasury. At the same time he contrived an ingenious scheme to provide himself and his confederates with money. It will be remembered that the title of the present ruler of Egypt was defective, and that Rome had claims on the country under the Will of the late king (see page 102). For twenty-two years Roman statesmen had failed to make up their minds whether they should annex Egypt or not. Cæsar and Crassus, who had been for annexation six years before, now looked to the North rather than to the East for their provincial base of operations, and were disposed to utilise Egypt in another way. It was therefore resolved to procure a decree of the people, recognising Ptolemy Auletes as king, and for this service Ptolemy paid the triumvirs a bribe of 6000 talents, about a million and a half sterling.[1] The prize which Cæsar had marked for himself, the command for five years in Cisalpine Gaul and Illyricum, was to be bestowed not by a law of his own proposing but by one brought in by the tribune Vatinius.
Cæsar at first affected to act with moderation. He submitted all his bills to the Senate, and in the case of the Agrarian Law in particular he declared himself ready and willing to listen to argument and to accept
- ↑ Suetonius, Jul., 54.
