He afterwards approved himself a most resolute supporter of Caecilius Metellus,
					tribune of the people, who, in spite of all opposition from his colleagues, had
					proposed some laws of a violent tendency, Among others, one
						for recalling Pompey from Asia ,
						under the pretext that the commonwealth was in danger. Cato was one of the
						colleagues who saw through the design and opposed the decree. until
					they were both dismissed from office by a vote of the senate. He ventured,
					notwithstanding, to retain his post and continue in the administration of
					justice; but finding that preparations were made to obstruct him by force of
					arms, he dismissed the lictors, threw off his gown, and betook himself privately
					to his own house, with the resolution of being quiet, in a time so unfavourable
					to his interests. He likewise pacified the mob, which two days afterwards
					flocked about him, and in a riotous manner made a voluntary tender of their
					assistance in the vindication of his honour. This happening contrary to
					expectation, the senate, who met in haste, on account of the tumult, gave him
					their thanks by some of the leading members of the house, and sending for him,
					after high commendation of his conduct, cancelled their former vote, and
					restored him to his office. But he soon got into fresh trouble, being named amongst the accomplices of
					Catiline, both before Novius Niger the quaestor, by Lucius Vettius the informer,
					and in the senate by Quintus Curius; to whom a reward had been voted, for having
					first discovered the designs of the conspirators. Curius affirmed that he had
					received his information from Catiline. Vettius even engaged to produce in
					evidence against him his own hand-writing, given to Catiline. Caesar, feeling
					that this treatment was not to be borne, appealed to Cicero himself, whether he
					had not voluntarily made a discovery to him of some particulars of the
					conspiracy; and so baulked Curius of his expected reward. He, therefore, obliged
					Vettius to give pledges for his behaviour, seized his goods, and after heavily
					fining him, and seeing him almost torn in pieces before the rostra, threw him
					into prison; to which he likewise sent Novius the quaestor, for having presumed
					to take an information against a magistrate of superior authority. At the expiration of his praetorship he obtained by lot the Farther- Spain , See before, p. 6.
						This was in A. u. c. 693. and pacified his creditors, who were for
					detaining him, by finding sureties for his debts. Plutarch
						informs us, that Caesar, before he came into office, owed his creditors
						1,300 talents, somewhat more than .565,ooo sterling. But his debts increased
						so much after this period, if we may believe Appian, that upon his departure
						for Spain, at the expiration of his praetorship, he is reported to have
						said, Bis millies et quingenties centena millia sibi
							adesse aportere, ut nihil haberet : i. e. That he was 2,000,000
						and nearly 20,000 sesterces worse than penniless. Crassus became his
						security for 830 talents, about £871,500. Contrary, however, to both
					law and custom, he took his departure before the usual equipage and outfit were
					prepared. It is uncertain whether this precipitancy arose from the apprehension
					of an impeachment, with which he was threatened on the expiration of his former
					office, or from his anxiety to lose no time in relieving the allies, who
					implored him to come to their aid. He had no sooner established tranquillity in
					the province, than, without waiting for the arrival of his successor, he
					returned to Rome , with equal haste, to
					sue for a triumph, For his victories in Gallicia and
							 Lusitania , having led his army
						to the shores of the ocean, which had not before been reduced to submission.
					 and the consulship. The day of election, however, being already fixed by
					proclamation, he could not legally be admitted a candidate, unless he entered
					the city as a private person. Caesar was placed in this
						dilemma, that if he aspired to a triumph, he must remain outside the walls
						until it took place, while as a candidate for the consulship, he must be
						resident in the city. On this emergency he solicited a suspension of
					the laws in his favour; but such an indulgence being strongly opposed, he found
					himself under the necessity of abandoning all thoughts of a triumph, lest he
					should be disappointed of the consulship. Of the two other competitors for the consulship, Lucius Luceius and Marcus
					Bibulus, he joined with the former, upon condition that Luceius, being a man of
					less interest, but greater affluence, should promise money to the electors, in
					their joint names. Upon which the party of the nobles, dreading how far he might
					carry matters in that high office, with a colleague disposed to concur in and
					second his measures, advised Bibulus to promise the voters as much as the other;
					and most of them contributed towards the expense, Cato himself admitting that
					bribery, under such circumstances, was for the public good. Even the severe censor was biassed by political expediency to sanction a
						system, under which what little remained of public virtue, and the love of
						liberty at Rome , were fast
						decaying. The strict laws against bribery at elections were disregarded, and
						it was practised openly, and accepted without a blush. Sallust says that
						everything was venal, and that Rome itself might be bought, if one was rich enough to
						purchase it. Jugurth. viii. 20, 3 . 
					He was accordingly elected consul jointly with Bibulus. Actuated still by the
					same motives, the prevailing party took care to assign provinces of small
					importance to the new consuls, such as the care of the woods and roads. Caesar,
					incensed at this indignity, endeavoured by the most assiduous and flattering
					attentions to gain to his side Cneius Pompey, at that time dissatisfied with the
					senate for the backwardness they showed to confirm his acts, after his victories
					over Mithridates. He likewise brought about a reconciliation between Pompey and
					Marcus Crassus, who had been at variance from the time of their joint
					consulship. in which office they were continually clashing; and he entered into
					an agreement with both, that nothing should be transacted in the government,
					which was displeasing to any of the three. Having entered upon his office, A. U. C. 695. he
					introduced a new regulation, that the daily acts both of the senate and people
					should be committed to writing, and published. The
						proceedings of the senate were reported in short notes taken by one of their
						own order, "strangers" not being admitted at their sittings. These notes
						included speeches as well as acts. These and the proceedings of the
						assemblies of the people, were daily published in journals [diurna], which
						contained also accounts of the trials at law, with miscellaneous
						intelligence of births and deaths, marriages and divorces. The practice of
						publishing the proceedings of the senate, introduced by Julius Caesar, was
						discontinued by Augustus. He also revived an old custom, that an
						officer Within the city, the lictors walked before only
						one of the consuls, and that commonly for a month alternately. A public
						officer, called Accensus, preceded the other consul, and the lictors
						followed. This custom had long been disused, but was now restored by
						Caesar. should precede him, and his lictors follow him, on the
					alternate months when the fasces were not carried before him. Upon preferring a
					bill to the people for the division of some public lands, he was opposed by his
					colleague, whom he violently drove out of the forum. Next day the insulted
					consul made a complaint in the senate of this treatment; but such was the
					consternation, that no one having the courage to bring the matter forward or
					move a censure, which had been often done under outrages of less importance, he
					was so much dispirited, that until the expiration of his office he never stirred
					from home, and did nothing but issue edicts to obstruct his colleague's
					proceedings. From that time, therefore, Caesar had the sole management of public
					affairs; insomuch that some wags, when they signed any instrument as witnesses,
					did not add " in the consulship of Caesar and Bibulus," but, "of Julius and
					Caesar;" putting the same person down twice, under his name and surname. The
					following verses likewise were currently repeated on this occasion: Non Bibulo quidquam nuper, sed Caesare factum est; Nam Bibulo fieri consule nil memini. 
					 Nothing was done in Bibulus's year: No; Caesar only then was consul here. The land of Stellas,
					consecrated by our ancestors to the gods, with some other lands in Campania left subject to tribute, for the
					support of the expenses of the government, he divided, but not by lot, among
					upwards of twenty thousand freemen, who had each of them three or more children.
					He eased the publicans, upon their petition, of a third part of the sum which
					they had engaged to pay into the public treasury; and openly admonished them not
					to bid so extravagantly upon the next occasion. He made various profuse grants
					to meet the wishes of others, no one opposing him; or if any such attempt was
					made, it was soon suppressed. Marcus Cato, who interrupted him in his
					proceedings, he ordered to be dragged out of the senate-house by a lictor, and
					carried to prison. Lucius Lucullus, likewise, for opposing him with some warmth.
					he so terrified with the apprehension of being criminated, that to deprecate the
					consul's resentment, he fell on his knees. And upon Cicero's lamenting in some
					trial the miserable condition of the times, he the very same day, by nine
					o'clock, transferred his enemy, Publius Clodius, from a patrician to a plebeian
					family; a change which he had long solicited in vain. In
						order that he might be a candidate for the tribuneship of the people; it was
						done late in the evening, at an unusual hour for public business. At
					last, effectually to intimidate all those of the opposite party, he by great
					rewards prevailed upon Vettius to declare, that he had been solicited by certain
					persons to assassinate Pompey; and when he was brought before the rostra to name
					those who had been concerted between them, after naming one or two to no
					purpose, not without great suspicion of subornation, Caesar, despairing of
					success in this rash stratagem, is supposed to have taken off his informer by
					poison.