from meddling with Sulla's arrangement, and it was not until the year 49 B.C., while the second Civil War was in progress, that this relic of the first was removed.
Cicero does not appear to have taken any part against a harmless but popular measure proposed by the tribune Labienus, which restored to the people under certain restrictions the power of electing the members of the great priestly colleges. The first effect of the change was to place in strong light the overwhelming personal popularity of Cæsar. The supreme dignity of Pontifex Maximus was now vacant, and Cæsar, though as yet he had served no office higher than the ædileship, appeared as a candidate, and was elected by a great majority over the heads of all the most distinguished members of the senatorial party, including the aged and revered Catulus.
Labienus and Cæsar were next found united in a fanciful project, which seems to have been intended as a sort of manifesto of principle on the side of the democratic party. Thirty-seven years previously the tribune Saturninus had been put to death in consequence of an armed riot during which he had seized on the Capitol. The Senate by special decree had empowered the Consul Marius to act against him, and on the strength of this decree Saturninus and his associates had been overpowered and massacred. Cæsar and Labienus now affected to rehabilitate the memory of Saturninus and to protest against such proceedings on the part of the Senate, by bringing to trial an aged senator named Caius
