votes, he
displeased them exceedingly. Then the majority repented of their course
and praised Cato and the rest. So the latter group both on his account
and because a certain lawsuit, nominally against their lieutenants but
really against them and with reference to their acts had been instituted
by some of the tribunes, dared indeed to commit no act of violence, but,
together with the malcontents in the senate, changed their clothing as
if for a calamity. They immediately, however, repented in regard to this
costume and without waiting for any excuse went back to their accustomed
dress. Now when the tribunes endeavored to abolish the levies and
rescind the vote for the proposed campaigns, Pompey, for his part,
showed no anger. He had sent out his lieutenants without delay and he
himself was glad to remain where he was on the plea that he was
prevented from going abroad, especially as he ought to be in Rome on
account of his duties in the care of the grain; and his plan in that
case was to let his officers subdue the Hispaniae and himself manage the
affairs at Rome and in the rest of Italy. Crassus, however, since
neither of these considerations operated in his case, turned to force of
arms. The tribunes, then, seeing that their boldness, being unarmed, was
too weak to hinder any of his undertakings, in general kept silence.
They announced many unusual portents, however, that applied to him, as
if they could avoid including the public in their curse: at one time as
he was offering on the Capitol the customary prayers for his campaign
they spread a report of omens and wonders, and again when he was setting
out they called down many terrible curses upon him. Ateius even
attempted to cast him into prison, but other tribunes resisted, and
there was a conflict among them and a delay, in the midst of which
Crassus left the pomerium.

[B.C. 56 (_a.u._ 698)]

[-40-] Now he, whether by chance or as a result of the curses, before
long met with defeat. As for Caesar, he, in the consulship of Marcellinus
and Philippus, had made an expedition against the Veneti, who live near
the ocean. They had seized some Roman soldiers sent out for grain and
afterward detained the envoys who came to see about them, to the end
that in exchange they might get back their own hostages. Caesar, instead
of giving these back, sent out different bodies of troops in various
directions, some to waste the possessions of those who had joined the
revolt and