With the death of the great dictator, the republic settled into an uneasy new normal, although festering wounds from the civil war and the purges would occasionally flare up into … unpleasantness between fellow citizens.
Caesar, for his part, was free to pursue a promising career now that a metaphorical sword of Damocles was no longer hanging over his head. In 63 BC — the same year a man named Cicero was elected consul and a fellow traveler of Caesar’s named Catiline tried to overthrow the government — Caesar won a long-shot election for Pontifex Maximus — a lifetime position as the high priest of Rome, which was usually given to much older men, but would prove to be very useful in the coming years.
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