their posts. It is said that 120 lictors could be counted and 200 senators.[1] But no state or pageantry could adequately express the importance of this meeting between the three chiefs. If they could come to an agreement, their power was sufficient to dispose of an Empire which was the civilised world.
The terms which Cæsar offered were so liberal that Pompey at once assented to them, and the bonds of the coalition were drawn closer than ever. As on the occasion of the first formation of the triumvirate, all that Pompey had been in vain endeavouring by painful intrigues to extract from his natural allies the constitutionalists, was granted to him in a word by his magnificent rival. It was arranged that Pompey and Crassus should forget their differences, and be consuls together for the next year (55 B.C.). After their consulship, Crassus was to lead an expedition against Parthia, and Pompey was to have for five years the governorship of Spain, which, however, he might administer by means of lieutenants, while he remained at the head of affairs in Rome. In return, Cæsar stipulated for an extension of five years in his command of the Gallic provinces, and for the defence at home of all Acts of his consulship.
To secure this last condition, it was necessary that Cicero should either be persuaded to renounce his opposition, or that he should again be driven into exile. Pompey, who had for his own purposes encouraged Cicero to put himself in the fore-front of the battle, accepted the ungracious task of checking and humiliating him. Now, as two years before,
- ↑ Plutarch, Pomp., 51, 2.
