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8Now all this troubled Caesar greatly, and likewise the fact that in the disputes which had arisen between the veterans and the senators and the landholding class in general—and these disputes were coming up in great numbers, since they were struggling for the greatest prizes—he could not attach himself to either side without danger. 2It was impossible, of course, for him to please both; for the one side wished to run riot, the other to be unharmed, the one side to get the property of others, the other to hold what was their own. And as often as he gave the preference to the interests of this party or that, according as he found it necessary, he incurred the hatred of the other; and he did not meet with so much gratitude for the favours he conferred as anger for the concessions he refused to make. 3For the one class took as their due all that was given them and regarded it as no kindness, while the other was indignant on the ground that they were being robbed of their own belongings. And as a result he continued to offend either the one group or the other, and to be reproached, now with being a friend of the people, and now with being a friend of the army. 4Consequently he was making no headway, and he furthermore learned by actual experience that arms had no power to make the injured feel friendly toward him, and that, while all those who would not submit might perish by arms, yet it was out of the question for any one to be compelled to love a person whom he does not wish to love. 5Thereupon he reluctantly yielded, and not only desisted from depriving the senators of their property (for previously he used to think it right to distribute anything that was theirs, asking them: “From what other source, then, are we to pay the veterans their prize money?”—as if anyone had commanded him to wage war or to make his large promises to the soldiers), but also kept his hands off other private property, such as the objects of value which women had acquired for their marriage portions or the property possessed by other persons, when it was of less value than the allotment of land given to the individual veteran.
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