[Sidenote:  He returns to Rome.] [Sidenote:  Caesar impeaches Dolabella.] [Sidenote:  Excitement in consequence.]

He returned, but not to be prudent or cautious; there was no element of prudence or caution in his character.  As soon as he arrived, he openly espoused the popular party.  His first public act was to arraign the governor of the great province of Macedonia, through which he had passed on his way to Bithynia.  It was a consul whom he thus impeached, and a strong partisan of Sylla’s.  His name was Dolabella.  The people were astonished at his daring in thus raising the standard of resistance to Sylla’s power, indirectly, it is true, but none the less really on that account.  When the trial came on, and Caesar appeared at the Forum, he gained great applause by the vigor and force of his oratory.  There was, of course, a very strong and general interest felt in the case; the people all seeming to understand that, in this attack on Dolabella, Caesar was appearing as their champion, and their hopes were revived at having at last found a leader capable of succeeding Marius, and building up their cause again.  Dolabella was ably defended by orators on the other side, and was, of course, acquitted, for the power of Sylla’s party was still supreme.  All Rome, however, was aroused and excited by the boldness of Caesar’s attack, and by the extraordinary ability which he evinced in his mode of conducting it.  He became, in fact, at once one of the most conspicuous and prominent men in the city.

[Sidenote:  Caesar’s increasing power.]

Encouraged by his success, and the applauses which he received, and feeling every day a greater and greater consciousness of power, he began to assume more and more openly the character of the leader of the popular party.  He devoted himself to public speaking in the Forum, both before popular assemblies and in the courts of justice, where he was employed a great deal as an advocate to defend those who were accused of political crimes.  The people, considering him as their rising champion, were predisposed to regard every thing that he did with favor, and there was really a great intellectual power displayed in his orations and harangues.  He acquired, in a word, great celebrity by his boldness and energy, and his boldness and energy were themselves increased in their turn as he felt the strength of his position increase with his growing celebrity.

[Sidenote:  Death of Marius’s wife.] [Sidenote:  Caesar’s panegyric on Marius’s wife.] [Sidenote:  Its success.]

At length the wife of Marius, who was Caesar’s aunt, died.  She had lived in obscurity since her husband’s proscription and death, his party having been put down so effectually that it was dangerous to appear to be her friend.  Caesar, however, made preparations for a magnificent funeral for her.  There was a place in the Forum, a sort of pulpit, where public orators were accustomed to stand in addressing