But it was the following action in particular that roused deadly hatred against him, When the Senate approached him in a body with many highly honorary decrees, he received them vefore the temple of Venus Genetrix without rising. Some think that when he attempted to get up, he was held back by Cornelius Balbus; others, that he made no such move at all, but on the contrary frowned angrily on Gaius Trebatius when he suggested that he should rise. And this action of his seemed the more intolerable, because when he himself in one of his triumphal processions rode past tle benches of the tribunes, he was so incensed because a member of the college, Pontius Aquila by name, did not rise, that he cried: “Come then, Aquila. take back the republic from me,? you tribune ”’; and for several days he would not make a promise to any one without adding, “ That is, if Pontius Aquila will allow me.”