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1The following year Caesar wished to gain the favour of the whole multitude, that he might make them his own to an even greater degree. But since he was anxious to seem to be advancing the interests also of the optimates, in order to avoid incurring their enmity, he often told them that he would propose no measure which should not also be to their advantage. 2And, indeed, he so framed a certain measure concerning the land, which he wished to assign to the whole populace, as not to incur the least censure for it; yet he pretended he would not introduce even this measure, unless it should be according to their wishes. So far as this law went, therefore, no one could find any fault with him. The swollen population of the city, 3which was chiefly responsible for the frequent rioting, would thus be turned toward labour and agriculture; and the greater part of Italy, now desolate, would be colonized afresh, so that not only those who had toiled in the campaigns, but all the rest as well, would have ample subsistence. And this would be accomplished without any expense on the part of the city itself or any loss to the optimates; on the contrary, many of them would gain both rank and office. 4He not only wished to distribute all the public land except Campania (which he advised them to keep distinct as the property of the state, because of its excellence), but he also bade them purchase the remainder from no one who was unwilling to sell nor yet for whatever price the land commissioners might wish, but, in the first place, from people who were willing to sell, and secondly, for the same price at which it had been assessed in the tax-lists. 5For they had a great deal of surplus money, he asserted, as a result of the booty which Pompey had captured, as well as from the new tributes and taxes just established, and they ought, inasmuch as it had been provided by the dangers that citizens had incurred, to expend it upon those same persons. 6Furthermore, he proposed that the land commission should not consist of a few members only, so as to seem like an oligarchy, or of men who were under indictment, lest somebody might be displeased, but that there should be, in the first place, twenty of them, so that many might share the honour, and secondly, that they should be the most suitable men. 7But he excepted himself from consideration, a point on which he strenuously insisted at the outset, in order that he might not be thought to be proposing a measure in his own interest. As for himself, he was satisfied with originating and proposing the matter; at least he said so, but clearly he was doing a favour to Pompey and Crassus and the rest.
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