Crassus, who was a man of vast wealth and a great friend of Caesar's, was associated with him in this plot, and was to have been made dictator if it had succeeded.

But, notwithstanding the brilliant prize with which Caesar attempted to allure Crassus to the enterprise, his courage failed him when the time for action arrived.

Courage and enterprise, in fact, ought not to be expected of the rich; they are the virtues of poverty.
[Sidenote: He is made aedile.] [Sidenote: Gladiatorial shows.] [Sidenote: Caesar's increasing popularity.] Though the Senate were thus jealous and suspicious of Caesar, and were charging him continually with these criminal designs, the people were on his side; and the more he was hated by the great, the more strongly he became intrenched in the popular favor.

They chose him _aedile_.

The aedile had the charge of the public edifices of the city, and of the games spectacles, and shows which were exhibited in them.