SEVENTH BOOK OF THE WAR IN GAUL.—THE REVOLT OF VERCINGETORIX.—B.C. 52.

In opening his account of his seventh campaign C?sar makes almost the only reference to the affairs of Rome which we find in these memoirs¹. Clodius has been murdered. We know, too, that Crassus had been killed at the head of his army in the east, and that, at the death of Clodius, Pompey had been created Dictator in the city with the name of sole Consul³. C?sar, however, only mentions the murder of Clodius, and then goes on to say that the Gauls, knowing how important to him must be the affairs of Rome at this moment, think that he cannot now attend to them, and that, in his absence, they may shake off the Roman yoke⁴. The affairs of Rome must indeed have been important to C?sar, if, as no doubt is true, he had already before his eyes a settled course of action by which to make himself supreme⁵ in the Republic. Clodius, the demagogue, was dead, whom he never could have loved, but whom it had not suited him to treat as an enemy. Crassus, too, was dead, whom, on account of his wealth, C?sar had admitted as a colleague. Pompey, the third triumvir,{101} remained at Rome, and was now sole Consul; Pompey who, only twelve months since, had so fondly given up his legion for the sake of the Republic,—and for friendship. C?sar, no doubt, foresaw by this time that the struggle must be at last between himself and Pompey. The very forms of the old republican rule were being turned adrift, and C?sar must have known, as Pompey also knew, and Clodius had known, and even Crassus, that a new power would become paramount⁶ in the city. But the hands to wrest⁷ such power must be very strong. And the day had not yet quite come. Having spent six summers in subduing⁸ Gaul, C?sar would not lose the prestige, the power, the support, which such a territory, really subdued⁹, would give him. Things, doubtless, were important at Rome, but it was still his most

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