Rest there
could be none for him. Battle was the tenure by which he held his office;
and beyond the range of his trumpet's blare, his sceptre was a broken
reed. The office of Caesar at this time resembled the situation (as it is
sometimes described in romances) of a knight who has achieved the favor of
some capricious lady, with the present possession of her castle and ample
domains, but which he holds under the known and accepted condition of
meeting all challenges whatsoever offered at the gate by wandering
strangers, and also of jousting at any moment with each and all amongst
the inmates of the castle, as often as a wish may arise to benefit by the
chances in disputing his supremacy.
It is a circumstance, moreover, to be noticed in the aspect of the Roman
monarchy at this period, that the pressure of the evils we are now
considering, applied to this particular age of the empire beyond all
others, as being an age of transition from a greater to an inferior power.
Had the power been either greater or conspicuously less, in that
proportion would the pressure have been easier, or none at all.
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