*g* Nope, Cimon, I can't agree that Caesar was negotiating in bad faith in 51 and 50 with the Senate ... but our difference of opinion illuminates a major and defining difference among all those who study this period, IMHO. It's the infinitely-interesting, never-knowable, question of Caesar's motives.

School I: Caesar, conventional Roman aristocrat to the core, didn't want to become dictator of Rome; he wanted world conquest, to be accounted the greatest among his peers, a second Consulship, and world-class dignitas as he went into his senior years in the Republic. Those like Cato & Company who were convinced he was out to get the Republic for 15 years prior to the Rubicon, helped create a situation where he was forced into ever-more-radical solutions to the problem of his personal fame in Rome. These thinkers (they include me) think Caesar ended up being unhappy about how it all turned out, although he was far too cynical to waste MUCH sleep on it. Why? Because his legacy, his reputation, would never recover from instigating Civil War and he knew it (and it's quite true. That's stained his reputation for all time).

School II: Caesar from his earliest years had a cold-eyed intention of wrecking the Republic and wresting absolute power for himself on the Sullan model. Every step he took from at least the Consulship was geared towards appearing to be acting within the law and actually working towards destroying the Senate and becoming dictator for life or king.

Plutarch hints at School II, as does Suetonius. I'm interested that nothing from Caesar's own contemporaries has survived to guide us - I'd give about anything to read Pollio's history of Caesar's actions, among many others now vanished. But I just can't buy it. Caesar wanted power, but absolute power? There are plenty of quotes from the Great Man once all his peers were dead or muzzeled that implies that being first among EQUALS was his goal - being first among the surviving syncophants and rump Senators was depressing, it meant nothing.

So we're just arguing School I against School II, Cimon, since Caesar's intentions are perfectly arguable either way!!