From the Gracchi to Nero: A History of Rome from 133 B.C. to A.D. 68 (20 page)

The
concordia ordinum
, a little shaken, was soon shattered into smithereens. The cause was in large measure the demands of Pompey, Caesar and Crassus, which were by no means outrageous, and the short-sighted reaction of the Die-Hard Optimates. Crassus supported a request from a company of taxgatherers that the Senate should adjust a bad bargain which they had made in contracting for the taxes of Asia.
¹⁴
Cicero, who regarded the claim as disgraceful, nevertheless supported it in order to prevent the breach between Senate and Equites from widening, but under Cato’s leadership it was finally rejected (early 60). Meantime Pompey had been rebuffed by the Optimates in both his private and public life. Cato rejected a suggestion that Pompey should marry one of his relations, but of greater importance was Pompey’s double request that his eastern settlement should be ratified by the Senate and that land should be provided for his veterans. Both demands were perfectly reasonable, and Pompey hoped that they would be put through by L. Afranius, whose election to the consulate of 60 he had secured by bribery. When however the Optimates under the leadership of men like Metellus Creticus, Lucullus and Cato began to obstruct and quibble over details, and Afranius proved ineffective, Pompey turned to the
populares
and the services of a tribune Flavius to bring a land-bill before the People. The senatorial opposition to this was led by the other consul, Metellus Celer, who at one point was even hauled off to prison by Flavius, but it prevailed in the end.

Finally, Caesar was back from Spain. After his praetorship (62) he had been enabled to take up the governorship of Further Spain thanks to Crassus who helped him to satisfy his creditors before leaving. In his province he campaigned in the west, acquired money and the friendship of Cornelius Balbus of Gades (who was to prove a most useful personal agent), and tried to improve economic conditions. On his return he wanted a triumph and the consulship, but since he could not as a commander enter the city to stand for election, he asked the Senate for permission to stand
in absentia
. Though there were precedents, the Senate refused. Caesar abandoned his triumph and entered Rome as an ordinary candidate. Any wild hope that Cicero might have had of winning him over to support the
concordia
was now lost.

The policy of the Senate was unrealistic, and even Cicero complained that Cato talked as if he were in the Republic of Plato, not in the sink of Romulus. By uncompromising refusal to meet the demands of Pompey, Caesar and Crassus the Senate naturally drove them into each other’s arms. The three men agreed to form a political
amicitia
, which modern writers have called the First Triumvirate, but which was described by the ancients in less flattering terms, as ‘potentiae societas’, ‘coniuratio’ or ‘dominatio’. It was essentially a private, and at first a secret, agreement to work together for their mutual political advantage.

Its formation was a turning point in the history of the Free State, and it was, as both Cicero and Cato recognized, the ultimate origin of the Civil War of 49 B.C. This truth was underlined when the historian Asinius Pollio, a supporter of Caesar and M. Antony, started his history of the great civil war with the year 60, the consulship of Metellus and Afranius. Three men, backed by armed force, by the urban populace and by many of the Equites, imposed their will on the State and destroyed the power of the Senate. Henceforth Cicero felt that he had lost freedom of speech,
auctoritas
and
dignitas
: ‘tenemur undique neque iam quominus serviamus recusamus’, he wrote in 59. The State and constitution were now at the mercy of dynasts,
principes
, who strove for
potentia
and
dignitas
. It was for these values that the leaders were to fight in the coming civil war.
¹⁵

All this was to become plain only with the passage of time. At first men did not realize the existence of this compact and were in consequence puzzled by the way events developed: the masters who pulled the strings were hidden. If anything further was needed to stimulate Caesar to work with Pompey it was that the Senate, anticipating Caesar’s election to the consulship, established as a proconsular province for 58 B.C. the
silvae callesque
of Italy, a kind of forestry commission, instead of an overseas command.
¹⁶
At the elections Caesar was
duly chosen consul for 59, though the Senate managed to push in a conservative, M. Calpurnius Bibulus, as his colleague by means of bribery to which even Cato agreed ‘in the interests of the Republic’. The strengthening of the coalition was contemplated. Crassus, who first had to be reconciled with Pompey, had come in because of the influence of his wealth. Respectability would be gained if Cicero could be won over, but he stuck to his constitutional principles and rejected the triumvirs’ attractive overtures. Before long, however, the two leading members cemented their agreement with a marriage alliance: Pompey married Caesar’s daughter Julia.

When he entered office Caesar at once began to honour the promises that he must have given to Pompey and Crassus. The most urgent matter was to find land for Pompey’s impatient veterans. Caesar therefore brought an agrarian bill before the Senate, by which a commission should be set up to acquire and distribute land to the veterans and to some of the city poor. Despite the need, the moderation of the measure, and the fact that Caesar had consulted the Senate rather than the People, the Senators most foolishly allowed Cato to persuade them to reject it. In disgust Caesar took his bill to the Comitia, disregarding the obstruction of his colleague, Bibulus, and to make doubly sure he brought some of Pompey’s veterans into the Forum: the bill was carried. Soon afterwards he found it necessary to introduce a supplementary measure, the
lex Campana
, by which the already occupied
ager Campanus
was to be redistributed to some veterans and fathers of large families. Unlike the first bill, this was most harsh: it dealt a serious blow to an industrious peasantry and deprived the Roman Treasury of its revenues from these lands. This over-riding of civilian by military needs was in part the legacy of Marius.
¹⁷

His other obligation to Pompey was settled by Caesar through a tribune, P. Vatinius, who carried a bill by which Pompey’s eastern
acta
were confirmed
en bloc
.
¹⁸
He also paid Caesar’s debt to Crassus by a measure which remitted one-third of their contract to the Asian tax-collectors. Since the Senate had refused help, Caesar thus turned to the People. After satisfying his two friends, he next had to think of his own future, since he would clearly not be fobbed off with the
silvae callesque
. Accordingly Vatinius carried a bill which gave Caesar Cisalpine Gaul and Illyricum for five years (till the end of February 54?) with three legions and the right to appoint his own legates and to found colonies. When the governor-elect of Transalpine Gaul suddenly died, on Pompey’s proposal the Senate made a virtue of necessity and added this province and an extra legion to Caesar’s command. At this time the German chieftain Ariovistus asked to be recognized as a Friend of the Roman People, and Caesar supported the appeal, perhaps hoping to keep him in play until he himself was ready to drive the king out of Gaul. The triumvirs also secured the recognition of Ptolemy Auletes as king of Egypt (cf. p. 91) in return for a promise of 6000 talents. But in addition to these somewhat questionable
actions Caesar also carried some more statesman-like measures. He moved an excellent
lex lulia de repetundis
which defined the powers of provincial governors (e.g. limiting the acceptance of gifts and requisitionings, and regulating the keeping of accounts). Another measure provided for the publication of senatorial resolutions and important news.

When in the course of 59 the existence of the triumvirate became clear, it met with considerable public criticism, including a pamphlet written by Varro which he entitled
The Three-headed Monster
, but attacks did not go much further than demonstrations in the theatre; abuse from Bibulus was disregarded. True, a professional informer named Vettius alleged that the Optimates were plotting to murder Pompey, but the charge was not substantiated.
¹⁹
The triumvirs, however, needed agents and Caesar planned to secure a friendly tribune to replace Vatinius in 58. He chose the young patrician, P. Clodius, who by a process known as
transitio ad plebem
became a plebeian in order to stand for the tribunate of the plebs. Caesar would find him useful for checking the Optimates, and also for keeping an eye on Pompey while he himself was away in Gaul. The triumvirs also secured co-operative consuls for the next year, L. Calpurnius Piso and A. Gabinius, and did not neglect, with the help of Clodius, to get important provinces for them, namely Macedonia and Syria.

Clodius, on entering his tribunate of 58, quickly moved four laws: (
a
) censors should expel senators only when both were in agreement and after judicial inquiry (in fact no censors were elected between 61 and 50); (
b
) no magistrates (tribunes were not included) should stop public businesses by observing ill-omens (this was the method that Bibulus had tried to employ against Caesar); (
c
) corn was to be distributed free to citizens; this removal of any price turned earlier schemes for cheap corn, such as that of C. Gracchus, into an unashamed dole and hastened the demoralization of the people, besides enhancing Clodius’ own popularity; and (
d
)
collegia
(that is all associations apart from a few genuine old trade-guilds), which had been suppressed six years before, were to be legalized. This, like the corn law, was to have pernicious results: by forming political clubs, leaders could organize gangs of roughs, who increasingly dominated the political scene in Rome and disrupted order and security.

The triumvirs next used Clodius to remove from Rome two men whose presence was embarrassing: Cicero and Cato. Caesar first tried to spare Cicero by offering him a post on his staff in Gaul or abroad, but on Cicero’s refusal he let Clodius have his head. Ever since the Bona Dea trial (p. 96) Clodius had hated Cicero and he now proposed a bill to outlaw anyone who condemned a Roman citizen to death without a trial. This was obviously aimed at
Cicero for his conduct to the conspirators in 63. Despite wide appeals, which evoked much sympathy, Cicero failed to move Pompey or Caesar, and was compelled to leave Rome: on the same day a bill was passed which officially exiled him and confiscated his property. While he was travelling south, however, he learnt that the bill had been amended to allow him to live anywhere not less than 400 miles from Rome. He crossed over to Macedonia, and it is pleasant to note that several friends had risked their lives by giving him shelter during his journey.

Cato was removed more gently: he was sent as
pro quaestore pro praetore
to announce the annexation of Cyprus on the excuse that its king Ptolemy had helped the pirates and to sell the king’s property whose estates enriched the Roman treasury by 7000 talents. There was no military resistance and Ptolemy committed suicide; Cyprus was added to the province of Cilicia. If Clodius in proposing Cato’s appointment had any hope that Cato might have lined his own pocket in the process and thus exposed himself to prosecution on his return, he was disappointed.
²¹

Another departure from Rome was that of Caesar, who went off to Gaul: his campaigns are described in the next chapter. Clodius then began a series of humiliating attacks upon Pompey, though whether he received encouragement (or orders) from Caesar or Crassus in uncertain. These assaults became so violent that Pompey withdrew to his house and for some months took little share in public life. In 56 he was forced to organize a rival band of supporters under the able leadership of T. Annius Milo, and clashes between the two gangs became frequent: Rome unfortunately lacked a police force to maintain order. Under this pressure Pompey began to regret the exile of Cicero, whose friends had been agitating for his return. At last in August 57, as a result of Pompey’s help and widespread support from country-towns of Italy, the Comitia Centuriata passed a consular law to recall Cicero.

Cicero’s journey through Italy was like a triumphal procession, but in Rome he had a long struggle to get adequate compensation for his house which Clodius had destroyed.
²²
He showed his gratitude to Pompey by proposing that he should be put in charge of the corn supply, because there was a shortage at the moment. By a consular bill Pompey was to receive proconsular
imperium
for five years with fifteen legates. A tribune C. Messius, then proposed much wider powers for Pompey, including
maius imperium
and military forces, but the former bill was carried. Messius had probably acted on his own initiative, but if he had been put up by Pompey or Pompey’s friends, the result showed that Pompey was not willing to challenge either the Senate or Caesar by pressing for dictatorial powers. He accepted the lesser commission and with his usual administrative efficiency he soon relieved the shortage. He showed a similar unwillingness to challenge his rivals in another episode. In 57 the Senate ordered one of the consuls, Lentulus Spinther, to
restore Ptolemy Auletes to his throne from which his subjects had driven him. But in 56 the friends of both Pompey (whom the king wanted) and Crassus begun to agitate for the commission to be entrusted to the triumvir of their choice. Again Pompey did not press the matter, which was allowed to lapse, but he will have been annoyed with Crassus. This feeling developed, as Pompey was increasingly attacked by Clodius’ gang, which he believed to be instigated by Crassus. He even went so far as to allege in the Senate that there was a plot against his life and to accuse Crassus.

The triumvirate appeared to be breaking apart, as Cicero had always hoped it might.
²³
In order to widen the rift Cicero attacked the absent member by proposing that sometime Caesar’s Campanian land law should be discussed, suggesting perhaps not its cancellation but its suspension until more funds were available. About the same time L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, a consular candidate for 55, flung down a direct challenge to Caesar by announcing that if he was elected he would propose the recall of Caesar from Gaul as soon as possible. In reply Caesar, who had not started his annual campaigning but was still at Ravenna, called Crassus to confer, and then together they moved to Luca to meet Pompey, if he would come; after a short delay Pompey decided to join them. Some 120 senators then toiled all the weary way to Luca to wait on their masters: Cicero and others remained with more dignity and apprehension in Rome.