The dispute grew very warm, Caesar urging his point with great perseverance and determination, and with a degree of violence which threatened seriously to obstruct the proceedings, when a body of armed men, a sort of guard of honor stationed there, gathered around him, and threatened him with their swords.

Quite a scene of disorder and terror ensued.

Some of the senators arose hastily and fled from the vicinity of Caesar's seat to avoid the danger.

Others, more courageous, or more devoted in their attachment to him, gathered around him to protect him, as far as they could, by interposing their bodies between his person and the weapons of his assailants.

Caesar soon left the Senate, and for a long time would return to it no more.
[Sidenote: Caesar's struggle for the office of pontifex maximus.] Although Caesar was all this time, on the whole, rising in influence and power, there were still fluctuations in his fortune, and the tide sometimes, for a short period, went strongly against him.