Having thus conciliated popular favour, he endeavoured, through his interest with
					some of the tribunes, to get Egypt 
					assigned to him as a province, by an act of the people. The pretext alleged for
					the creation of this extraordinary government, was, that the Alexandrians had
					violently expelled their king, Ptolemy Auletes, the son of
							 Cleopatra . whom the
					senate had complimented with the title of an ally and friend of the Roman
					people. This was generally resented; but, notwithstanding, there was so much
					opposition from the faction of the nobles, that he could not carry his point. In
					order, therefore, to diminish their influence by every means in his power, he
					restored the trophies erected in honor of Caius Marius, on account of his
					victories over Jugurtha, the Cimbri, and the Teutoni, which had been demolished
					by Sylla; and when sitting in judgment upon murderers, he treated those as
					assassins, who, in the late proscription, had received money from the treasury,
					for bringing in the heads of Roman citizens, although they were expressly
					excepted in the Cornelian laws. He likewise suborned some one to prefer an impeachment for treason against Caius
					Rabirius, by whose especial assistance the senate had, a few years before, put
					down Lucius Saturninus, the seditious tribune; and being drawn by lot a judge on
					the trial, he condemned him with so much animosity, that upon his appealing to
					the people, no circumstance availed him so much as the extraordinary bitterness
					of his judge. Having renounced all hope of obtaining Egypt for his province, he stood candidate for the office of
					chief pontiff, to secure which, he had recourse to the most profuse bribery.
					Calculating, on this occasion, the enormous amount of the debts he had
					contracted, he is reported to have said to his mother, when she kissed him at
					his going out in the morning to the assembly of the people, "I will never return
					home unless I am elected pontiff." In effect, he left so far behind him two most
					powerful competitors, who were much his superiors both in age and rank, that he
					had more votes in their own tribes, than they both had in all the tribes
					together. After he was chosen praetor, the conspiracy of Catiline was discovered; and while
					every other member of the senate voted for inflicting capital punishment on the
					accomplices in that crime, Lentulus, Cethegus, and
						others he alone proposed that the delinquents should be distributed
					for safe custody among the towns of Italy , their property being confiscated. He even struck such
					terror into those who were advocates of severity, by representing to them what
					universal odium would be attached to their memories by the Roman people, that
					Decius Silanus, consul-elect, did not hesitate to qualify his proposal, it not
					being very honourable to change it, by a lenient interpretation: as if it had
					been understood in a harsher sense than he intended, and Caesar would certainly
					have carried his point, having brought over to his side a great number of the
					senators, among whom was Cicero, the consul's brother, had not a speech by
					Marcus Cato infused new vigour into the resolutions of the senate. He persisted,
					however, in obstructing the measure, until a body of the Roman knights, who
					stood under arms as a guard, threatened him with instant death, if he continued
					his determined opposition. They even thrust at him with their drawn swords, so
					that those who sat next him moved away; and a few friends, with no small
					difficulty, protected him, by throwing their arms round him, and covering him
					with their togas. At last, deterred by this violence, he not only gave way, but
					absented himself from the senate-house during the remainder of that year. Upon the first day of his praetorship, he summoned Quintus Catulus to render an
					account to the people respecting the repairs to the Capitol; The temple of Jupiter Capitolinus was commenced and
						completed by the Tarquins, kings of Rome , but not dedicated till the year after their
						expulsion, when that honour devolved on M. Horatius Fulvillus, the first of
						the consuls. Having been burnt down during the civil wars, A.U.C. 670, Sylla
						restored it on the same foundations, but did not live to consecrate
						it. proposing a decree for transferring the office of curator to
					another person. Meaning Pompey; not so much for the sake of
						the office, as having his name inserted in the inscription recording the
						repairs of the Capitol, instead of Catulus. The latter, however, secured the
						honour, and his niame is still seen inscribed in an apartment at the
						Capitol, as its restorer. But being unable to withstand the strong
					opposition made by the aristocratical party, whom he perceived quitting, in
					great numbers, their attendance upon the new consuls, It
						being the calends of January, the first day of the year, on which the
						magistrates solemnly entered on their offices, surrounded by their
						friends. and fully resolved to resist his proposal, he dropped the
					design.