similar throng and similar applause accompanied me right up to the
Capitol, and in the forum and on the Capitol itself there was again a
wonderful crowd. Next day, in the senate, that is, the 5th of September,
I spoke my thanks to the senators. Two days after that--there having
been a very heavy rise in the price of corn, and great crowds having
flocked first to the theatre and then to the senate-house, shouting out,
at the instigation of Clodius, that the scarcity of corn was my
doing--meetings of the senate being held on those days to discuss the
corn question, and Pompey being called upon to undertake the management
of its supply in the common talk not only of the plebs, but of the
aristocrats also, and being himself desirous of the commission, when the
people at large called upon me by name to support a decree to that
effect, I did so, and gave my vote in a carefully-worded speech. The
other consulars, except Messalla and Afranius, having absented
themselves on the ground that they could not vote with safety to
themselves, a decree of the senate was passed in the sense of my motion,
namely, that Pompey should be appealed to to undertake the business, and
that a law should be proposed to that effect. This decree of the senate
having been publicly read, and the people having, after the senseless
and new-fangled custom that now prevails, applauded the mention of my
name,[379] I delivered a speech. All the magistrates present, except one
praetor and two tribunes, called on me to speak.[380] Next day a full
senate, including all the consulars, granted everything that Pompey
asked for. Having demanded fifteen legates, he named me first in the
list, and said that he should regard me in all things as a second self.
The consuls drew up a law by which complete control over the corn-supply
for five years throughout the whole world was given to Pompey. A second
law is drawn up by Messius,[381] granting him power over all money, and
adding a fleet and army, and an _imperium_ in the provinces superior to
that of their governors. After that our consular law seems moderate
indeed: that of Messius is quite intolerable. Pompey professes to prefer
the former; his friends the latter. The consulars led by Favonius
murmur: I hold my tongue, the more so that the pontifices have as yet
given no answer in regard to my house.[382] If they annul the
consecration I shall have a splendid site. The consuls, in accordance
with a decree of the sen