So far as he could, Caesar tried rather personally to gain over the more notable authors.
Cicero himself had to thank his literary reputation in good part for the respectful treatment which he especially experienced from Caesar; but the governor of Gaul did not disdain to conclude a special peace even with Catullus himself through the intervention of his father who had become personally known to him in Verona; and the young poet, who had just heaped upon the powerful general the bitterest and most personal sarcasms, was treated by him with the most flattering distinction.

In fact Caesar was gifted enough to follow his literary opponents on their own domain and to publish-- as an indirect way of repelling manifold attacks--a detailed report on the Gallic wars, which set forth before the public, with happily assumed naivete, the necessity and constitutional propriety of his military operations.

But it is freedom alone that is absolutely and exclusively poetical and creative; it and it alone is able even in its most wretched caricature, even with its latest breath, to inspire fresh enthusiasm.

All the sound elements of literature were and remained anti-monarchical; and, if Caesar himself could venture on this domain without proving a failure, the reason was merely that even now he still cherished at heart the magnificent dream of a free commonwealth, although he was unable to transfer it either to his adversaries or to his adherents.

Practical politics was not more absolutely controlled by the regents than literature by the republicans.( 10) New Exceptional Measures Resolved on It became necessary to take serious steps against this opposition, which was powerless indeed, but was always becoming more troublesome and audacious.