C. Julius Caesar, Commentaries on the Civil War
William Duncan, Ed.

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Caesar, as dictator, holding the Comitia, Julius Caesar, and P. Servilius, were chosen consuls; for this was the year in which he could be elected to that magistracy, consistent with the laws. This affair being despatched, as Caesar saw public credit at a stand over all Italy, because nobody paid their debts; he ordered that arbiters should be chosen, who should make an estimate of the possessions of all debtors, and should convey them in payment to their creditors, at the price they bore before the war. This regulation he thought best calculated to restore public credit, and prevent the apprehension of a general abolition of debts, which is but too common a consequence of wars and civil dissensions. At the same time, in consequence of an address to the people, he reestablished the praetors and tribunes, who had been deprived upon a charge of bribery, at a time when Pompey awed the city by his legions. These decisions were so little conformable to law, that sentence was often pronounced by a party of judges different from those who attended the pleadings. As these had made him an offer of their service in the beginning of the war, he accounted the obligation the same as if he had actually accepted of their friendship; but thought it better their restoration should seem to flow from the people, than appear a mere act of bounty in him, that he might neither be charged with ingratitude to his followers, nor accused of invading the prerogatives of the people.