26.1
Lentulus and his associates were executed, and Caesar, in view of the charges and accusations made against him to the senate, took refuge with the people and was stirring up and attaching to himself the numerous diseased and corrupted elements in the commonwealth. Cato was therefore alarmed and persuaded the senate to conciliate the poor and landless multitude by including them in the distribution of grain, the annual expenditure for which was twelve hundred and fifty talents.Cf. the Caesar, viii. 4. By this act of humanity and kindness the threatening danger was most successfully dissipated.
26.2
Then Metellus, who hastened to take up the duties of his tribuneship, began to hold tumultuous assemblies of the people, and proposed a law that Pompey the Great should hasten with his forces to ItalyPompey had just finished his conquest of Mithridates and was on the way home from Asia (62 B.C.). and undertake the preservation of the city, on the ground that it was imperilled by Catiline. Now, this was a specious proposition; but the end and aim of the law was to put matters in the hands of Pompey and hand over to him the supreme power.