It is also said that the whole Forum, and some of the great streets in the neighborhood where the principal gladiatorial shows were held, were covered with silken awnings to protect the vast crowds of spectators from the sun, and thousands of tents were erected to accommodate the people from the surrounding country, whom the buildings of the city could not contain.
[Sidenote: Caesar's power.] [Sidenote: Honors conferred upon him.] All open opposition to Caesar's power and dominion now entirely disappeared.

Even the Senate vied with the people in rendering him every possible honor.

The supreme power had been hitherto lodged in the hands of two consuls, chosen annually, and the Roman people had been extremely jealous of any distinction for any one, higher than that of an _elective annual office,_ with a return to private life again when the brief period should have expired.

They now, however, made Caesar, in the first place, consul for ten years, and then Perpetual Dictator.

They conferred upon him the title of the Father of his Country.