Editing First Triumvirate (section)

==== In Gaul ====
{{Main|Gallic Wars}}

Through this whole period, Caesar was fighting in the [[Gallic Wars]]. By early 56&nbsp;BC, he had won enormous popularity both with the senate and the people: in 57, Caesar requested thanksgivings for his victory over the [[Belgae]] and, at a motion of Cicero, received fifteen days of ''supplicationes'', a new record. In his narrative of his campaign, ''[[Commentarii de Bello Gallico]]'', by 57, Caesar reported pacification of the whole region.{{sfn|Morstein-Marx|2021|pp=219–20, 221 (pacification)}} These military achievements had undercut any political will to undermine Caesar's ''acta'' from his first consulship, and during 56 itself, Caesar received a series of favourable senatorial decrees to provide more funds for his troops in Gaul – above Cicero's objections that Caesar could have paid for them out of his spoils – and granted his request to have ten legates ({{lang|la|decem legati}}) sent to aid in administration and senatorial settlement of the region's affairs.{{sfn|Morstein-Marx|2021|pp=220–21}}

Caesar's successes at this point had made him extremely popular among the people and in general across the political class; Cicero, who had been sullen during Caesar's consulship, sang his praises, saying "If perhaps Gaius Caesar was too contentious in any matter, if the greatness of the struggle, his zeal for glory, if his irrepressible spirit and high nobility drove him on [that] should be tolerated in the case of a man of his quality".{{sfn|Morstein-Marx|2021|p=225}} This popularity, however, did not translate into political victories for his political allies: none of the magistrates for 57 were friendly; in the elections of 57 (for magistrates in 56) his allies were repulsed from both the aedileship and the praetorship, while his political enemies won two praetorships.{{sfn|Morstein-Marx|2021|p=228}} Caesar's political support in Rome was largely dependent on Pompey and Crassus, rather than his own legates or allies.{{sfn|Morstein-Marx|2021|p=229}}

By 56&nbsp;BC, Caesar's enemies were mobilising against him: a tribune attempted to recall him for trial – which was vetoed, as he Caesar was legitimately on government business, – while Domitius only "declared his intention to terminate Caesar's command as soon as possible".{{sfn|Tatum|2006|p=202}} Furthermore, Caesar's land bills were under attack by a tribune – perhaps under Pompey's influence – who wanted to deny Caesar's veterans from receiving land under his ''lex Julia agraria'' upon their retirement.{{sfn|Drogula|2019|p=175}} And in the summer, fighting started back up, with campaigns against a [[Veneti (Gaul)|Veneti]] uprising in northwestern Gaul.{{sfn|Morstein-Marx|2021|p=222}} These campaigns led Caesar to seek a five-year extension of his command; to do this, he too would need the support of his allies once more.{{sfn|Drogula|2019|p=176}}