pposition.

[Sidenote: Caesar's statute crowned.]

Not long after this, as he was returning in public from some great
festival, the streets being full of crowds, and the populace following
him in great throngs with loud acclamations, a man went up to his
statue as he passed it, and placed upon the head of it a laurel crown,
fastened with a white ribbon, which was a badge of royalty. Some
officers ordered the ribbon to be taken down, and sent the man to
prison. Caesar was very much displeased with the officers, and dismissed
them from their office. He wished, he said, to have the opportunity to
disavow, himself, such claims, and not to have others disavow them
for him.

[Sidenote: Caesar's disavowals.]

Caesar's disavowals were, however, so faint, and people had so little
confidence in their sincerity, that the cases became more and more
frequent in which the titles and symbols of royalty were connected with
his name. The people who wished to gain his favor saluted him in public
with the name of _Rex_, the Latin word for king. He replied that his
name was Caesar, not _Rex_, showing, however, no other signs of
displeasure. On one great occasion, a high public officer, a near
relative of his, repeatedly placed a diadem upon his head, Caesar
himself, as often as he did it, gently putting it off. At last he sent
the diadem away to a temple that was near, saying that there was no king
in Rome but Jupiter. In a word, all his conduct indicated that he wished
to have it appear that the people were pressing the crown upon him,
when he himself was steadily refusing it.

[Sidenote: Some willing to make Caesar king.]
[Sidenote: Others oppose it.]

This state of things produced a very strong and universal, though
suppressed excitement in the city. Parties were formed. Some began to be
willing to make Caesar king; others were determined to hazard their
lives to prevent it. None dared, however, openly to utter their
sentiments on either side. They expressed them by mysterious looks and
dark intimations. At the time when Caesar refused to rise to receive the
Senate, many of the members withdrew in silence, and with looks of
offended dignity When the crown was placed upon his statue or upon his
own brow, a portion of the populace would applaud with loud
acclamations; and whenever he disavowed these acts, either by words or
counter-actions of his own, an equally loud acclamation would arise from
the other side. On the whole, howev