Pompeius and Cæsar in juxtaposition

Among the democratic chiefs, who from the time of the consulate of Cæsar were recognised officially, so to speak, as the joint rulers of the commonwealth, as the governing “triumvirs,” Pompeius in public opinion occupied decidedly the first place. It was he who was called by the Optimates the “private dictator;” it was before him that Cicero prostrated himself in vain; against him were directed the sharpest sarcasms in the placards of Bibulus, and the most' envenomed arrows of the conversation in the saloons of the opposition. This was only to be expected. According to the facts before the public Pompeius was indisputably the first general of his time; Cæsar was a dexterous party leader and party orator, of undeniable talents, but as notoriously of unwarlike, and indeed of effeminate, temperament. Such opinions had been long current; it could not be expected of the rabble in high quarters, that they should trouble themselves about the real state of things and abandon platitudes once established, because of some obscure feats of heroism on the Tagus. Cæsar evidently played in the league the mere part of the adjutant, who executed for his chief the work which Plavius, Afranius, and other less capable instruments had attempted and not performed. It seemed as if even his governorship could not alter this state of things.