Chapter 49

Having settled his legions in winter quarters. Cassius proceeded to Corduba to administer justice, and resolved to lay a very heavy impost on the province and so defray the debts he had incurred in it. And so, as the habit of bribery necessitates, open-handedness was the plausible excuse for seeking yet further contributions to the source of bribery. Wealthy men were ordered to furnish sums of money, and these Longinus not merely allowed but even compelled to be debited to his own account: poor men were precipitated into conflict with the wealthy class to promote dissensions; and no kind of profit, either large and obvious, or quite insignificant and mean, was overlooked, none with which the commander-in-chief was not involved privately and officially. There was not one man—provided only he had something to lose—but he was either held on bail or duly entered in the lists of the accused. Thus there was also a very uneasy presentiment of danger in addition to the sacrifices and losses of personal possessions.