C. Julius Caesar, Commentaries on the Civil War
William Duncan, Ed.

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But all these proposals were rejected, because the consul, Scipio, and Cato, declared against them. Cato was incited by the remembrance of an old quarrel, and the disappointment he had sustained in standing candidate for the pretorship with Caesar. Lentulus was oppressed with debt, and flattered himself with the command of armies, the government of provinces, and the largesses of the kings for whom he should procure the title of allies and friends of the Roman people. He was besides wont to boast, among those of his own party, that he doubted not of becoming a second Sylla, in whom the whole authority of the commonwealth should centre. Scipio entertained the same hope of commands and governments, which he expected to share with his son-in-law Pompey: added to this his dread of a prosecution; his vanity and selfconceit; and the flatteries and applauses of his friends, who at that time bore a considerable sway in the commonwealth and courts of justice. Pompey himself, instigated by Caesar's enemies, and not able to endure an equal dignity, was now entirely alienated from him, and had joined with their common adversaries, most of whom Caesar had contracted during his affinity with Pompey. Beside, the fraudulent step he had taken, in detaining, for the purposes of his own ambition, the two legions destined to serve in Asia and Syria, determined him to use all his endeavours to bring on a civil war,