So firmly does he believe it that he wishes others to know that he believes it, and insists that the shrine shall be erected in a frequented place![580] Though the great Dictator did not believe in another world, he consented at the end of his life to become Jupiter Julius, and after his death was duly canonised as Divus, and had a temple erected to him.

But the many-sided question of the deification of the Caesars cannot be discussed here; it is only mentioned as showing in another way the trend of thought in this dark age of Roman history.

Whatever some philosophers may have thought, there cannot be a doubt that the ordinary Roman believed in the godhead of Julius.[581] 3.

We saw in an earlier chapter with what gay and heedless frivolity young men like Caelius were amusing themselves even on the very eve of civil war.

In strange contrast with this is the gloom that overspread all classes during the war itself, and more especially after the assassination of the Dictator.