ABSTRACT
Whilst Democratic Imperialism was passing through this supreme ordeal in Gaul, an important change had taken place in the metropolis. Pompey at last made his peace with the Conservatives. Soon after the departure of Cæsar the rioting had become so serious and energetic measures of repression so urgently necessary that the whole of Rome, even his most violent opponents, had been driven in dismay to acquiesce in the Dictatorship of Pompey. Cato had indeed insisted that Pompey's official title should be not Dictator, but sole Consul, in order that he might still be held responsible at the expiration of his term. But this was a mere constitutional subtlety. The fact remained. Pompey had been raised alone to a supreme position in the State, with the duty of re-establishing order at all costs, thereby adding to his long list of extraordinary honours the altogether unprecedented privilege of being at once Consul and Proconsul.
