Caesar’s competitors in the election were Bibulus and
Lucceius. Bibulus had served with Caesar as Aedile, but disliked him immensely.
Nonetheless he offered bribes to Caesar for his support. Caesar refused and
short on cash himself, borrowed money
from Lucceius. He did not approach Crassus, as he was accustomed to because he
didn’t want to offend Pompey who was still at odds with the wealthiest man in
Rome. When the votes were tallied, Caesar was elected along with Bibulus who
had benefitted from a campaign of bribery undertaken by Cato.
The force bringing the triumvirs together was now set in
motion. Caesar was snubbed by the Senate when it assigned the “forests and
cattle runs” of southeastern Italy as the province to be administered by the
new Consuls.
Pompey was snubbed when the land bill he proposed to
accommodate his veterans was defeated. The Senate looked down on Pompey as
beneath their class – a plebian by heritage and only now elevated because of
his father. They distrusted him fearing he would try to use his army to
overthrow the government.
Finally, Crassus was snubbed when he supported the re-write
of a tax collection contract favored by the knights. He got Cicero over to his
position, but Cato killed the bill.
The Senate of this period was made up of three factions,
each amounting to one third of the voting power: conservatives who supported
the Republic as it had always been, moderates including Cicero and Cato who
allowed some adaptation of the political system, and the liberals who supported
Pompey and Caesar. The conservatives were so strict in their point of view,
they tried to block all efforts of the triumvirs, unable to perceive the harm
they would eventually bring to themselves.
Pompey and Crassus decided to bury the hatchet and go in
with Caesar. The latter was still the least influential of the triumvirs but he
had two important assets: he was by far the best negotiator and he had
previously been a supporter of Marius, the man of the people, whereas the other
two were seen as allies of dictator Sulla.
The allies decided to add a fourth man to the group – make a
quatumvirate, no less. The man they chose was Cicero, because of his oratorical
skills. The invitation to join was delivered to him by Balbus, a confidant of
Caesar. Cicero was certainly angry at the conservatives who were in the process
of wrecking the Republic, but he could not abide the triumvirs either. He felt
Pompey and Crassus were not supportive enough of his handling of the conspiracy
of Cataline, while his antipathy toward Caesar was visceral. In the end, he
refused to join the others and would suffer later because of it.
Michael Grant, in his biography of Caesar described what
followed:
“During the next ten years the triumvirate remained the
controlling factor in Roman politics. This is not, as it is sometimes called, a
defeat for democracy. The dispute was not between senatorial government and
democracy, which never existed in Rome and never would, but between a haughty,
reactionary, corrupt oligarchy and an equally ruthless tyranny conducted by
three individuals.”
Let me provide more detail for year one – 59 B.C.
When the newly elected Caesar introduced the land bill to the
Senate, they filibustered until he withdrew the measure and took it to the assembly.
It was vetoed by three tribunes but Pompey and Crassus spoke in favor, making
it plain they were allied with Caesar. When Bibulus, the other Consul, tried to
block the bill, Caesar had Pompey’s troops burst into the assembly and
intimidate the opposition into surrender.
Frustrated, Bibulus and his allies tried the alternative tactic
of using auspices to block all assembly meetings. Whenever an Assembly meeting
was scheduled, he would take auspices and declare that the date was unsuitable.
Caesar ignored this blocking attempt and used the Assembly to pass legislation
beneficial to the Triumvirs.
In April, Pompey, who was 43, married Caesar’s daughter
Julia, 17. It has been suggested that Pompey needed the link to be able to
count on Caesar’s political skills. Caesar also married for political advantage
-- Calpurnia, daughter of Lucius Piso, who Caesar sought as a puppet Consul for
the next year. These matrimonial maneuverings prompted Cato to remark that the
Roman political system had become a marriage bureau.
Now Caesar decided it was time to improve his financial
position and sought to use Egypt as the golden nugget. The king of Egypt had
died and left a dubious will declaring his country would be bequeathed to Rome.
Caesar then bribed the Senate and the Assembly with borrowed money to recognize
Ptolemy XII as the rightful king so that he could gain a fortune through his
relationship with the new monarch.
Even more important were Caesar’s efforts to secure a
province for himself after his term of Consulship ended. Working through a
trusted Tribune, Vatinius, he moved a bill through the assembly to allocate to
himself Cisalpine Gaul and Illyricum for a period of five years instead of the
normal two. The Senate was not even consulted. Bibulus declared the law invalid
because the omens were not favorable, but, once again, he was ignored. During a
subsequent shouting match in the Senate, Caesar declared that he had gotten
what he wanted despite the moanings of the Senate and that from now on he would
“mount on top of the heads of the Senators”.
Caesar was allocated three legions for his new dominion and
as he prepared for the new assignment, fortune
smiled down on him and changed history. Narbonese Gaul (also referred to as
Transalpine Gaul) had previously been assigned with Cisalpine Gaul to a single
Consul. This time the provinces were split with Metellus Celer receiving the
former and Caesar receiving the latter. Before taken his post, however, Celer
died, and Caesar used his father-in-law Piso and his son-in-law Pompey to argue
that Narbonese Gaul should be added to his domain. The Senate gave in, possibly
thinking that the more Caesar had on his plate away from Rome, the less he
would meddle in its affairs.
But Caesar’s power remained a threat to the Senate. In July,
an informer named Vettius accused Caesar or a plot to kill Pompey, but before
the matter could be prosecuted, Vettius died mysteriously. An assassination attempt
by a slave followed, but Caesar would survive to let history take its course.
He would spend eight years in Gaul conquering the tribes and
write the Commentaries along the way. Julia, wife of Pompey and daughter or
Caesar, would die in childbirth (54 B.C.) breaking the marital bond between husband
and father. Crassus would be ambushed and killed in Pythia in 53 B.C. leaving
no offset to any conflict Caesar and Pompey. Caesar would use Gaul to fortify
his resume as a military leader while Pompey languished in Rome, a general out
of place as a politician. By the time Caesar crossed the Rubicon in January 49
B.C, he knew he was the man who would change the Republic forever.
1 comment:
Wow! What a story! Well written. Thanks!
And if you want to hear a cute, short music video version of it (fewer details)see:
Julius Caesar ("Besame Mucho" by the Beatles)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPYuxReh7fM
Then on the "mere subject" of only Rome, I found:
Viva Roma No. V ("Mambo #5" by Lou Bega)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=me4E5wDCK2Q
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