He gave orders
that the Sibylline Oracles should be consulted. The proper officers,
after consulting them with the usual solemn ceremonies, reported to the
Senate that they found it recorded in these sacred prophecies that the
Parthians could not be conquered except by a _king_, A senator proposed,
therefore, that, to meet the emergency, Caesar should be made king
during the war. There was at first no decisive action on this proposal.
It was dangerous to express any opinion. People were thoughtful,
serious, and silent, as on the eve of some great convulsion. No one knew
what others were meditating, and thus did not dare to express his own
wishes or designs. There soon, however, was a prevailing understanding
that Caesar's friends were determined on executing the design of
crowning him, and that the fifteenth of March, called, in their
phraseology, the _Ides of March_, was fixed upon as the coronation day.
[Sidenote: The conspiracy.]
In the mean time, Caesar's enemies, though to all outward appearance
quiet and calm, had not been inactive. Finding that his plans were now
ripe for execution, and that they had no, open means of resisting them,
they formed a conspiracy to assassinate Caesar himself, and thus bring
his ambitious schemes to an effectual and final end.
Pages:
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215