Caesar, returning from his command in Spain, asked for a triumph. Cato blocked the triumph. […] His rule began as the triumph of a faction in civil war: he made it his task to transcend faction, and in so doing wrought his own destruction. […] Ventidius, whose infancy had known slavery and degradation: captured by Pompeius Strabo at Asculum, he had been led or carried in a Roman triumph. […] In Caesar’s defiance of the Senate and his triumph over noble adversaries, they too had a share of power and glory.