10c: The First Triumvirate

The cursus honorum as it had evolved in Rome's early days worked just fine, even for a city-state which absorbed all of Italy. Even a Scipio Africanus, the conqueror of Hannibal and darling of the Roman masses, had been content to fade into the woodwork once his job was done. No Roman was greater than the Roman state, and the Gracchi had learned the hard way not to stick one's neck out against the Senate. Even Sulla, murderous thug that he was, tried to ensure there would be no more warlords like him. By increasing the power of the Senate he thought he might save the Roman Republic. Those were different times. Rome was now too big, too wealthy, too powerful to be effectively controlled by annual magistrates working under the overall control of the Roman Senate. Defending the Roman world now required powers far greater than the mos maiorum  had been comfortable in granting just one man.

Victory over King Mithradates of Pontus had required a five-year grant of proconsular imperium to Pompey. Only then could Pompey defeat Mithradates, reorganize Rome's new Near Eastern territories into provinces, and establish a belt of buffer states between the Roman Empire and Parthia. None of this would have been possible for a general who was constantly asking the Senate for permission. Pompey did indeed lay his imperium down when he returned to Rome. In 61 BC Pompey held a triumph and dismissed his troops. But he wanted the Senate to ratify his political arrangements and give land to his faithful client soldiers. The Senate, trying to retain a scrap of its former prominence, refused. Crassus had become Rome's wealthiest man during Sulla's reign of terror by buying very cheaply the property of proscribed Romans. Crassus had done most of the work in putting down the Spartacus slave rebellion,only to have Pompey show up just in time to claim the credit. After serving with Pompey as consul for 70 BC, he looked to his financial affairs; in the Senate, he was the patron for the publicani, or tax collectors. Because Pompey's smashing victories had extracted so much money from the East, the publicani had fallen on rough times. They wanted to renegotiate what they had promised to pay the Senate, but again, the Senate refused. Gaius Julius Caesar was an dirt poor patrician, further handicapped by being the nephew of Marius's wife. But he had mad political skillz, which he displayed in getting elected pontifex maximus. From that important office, he did the groundwork for winning the consulship of 59 BC. He reached out to Pompey and Crassus and promised to help them get what they wanted from the Senate, provided they helped him get the consulship... and a nice long grant of proconsular imperium in Gaul after that.

The arrangement Caesar made between Pompey, Crassus, and himself is best known today as the "First Triumvirate" even though it was not a legal entity like the Second Triumvirate was. The three "triumvirs" had hoped to bring the silver-tongued Cicero in to make it a foursome, but to his credit Cicero could not be conned in to joining. As planned, Caesar was elected one of the consuls for 59 BC, along with an unfortunate would named Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus. That year Caesar did everything in his power, legal or illegal, to pass the legislation Pompey and Crassus wanted. Anyone who got in Caesar's way found himself on the recieving end of a beating from Pompey's burly veterans. His tactics were so heavy handed that Bibulus stayed at home all year claiming that he was "watching the skies" - meaning that he was collecting bizarre religious portents to help him undo Caesar's legislation after their year as consuls was over. Roman wags referred to 59 BC not as the consulship of "Caesar and Bibulus," but of "Julius and Caesar." Pompey got his official "attaboy" for beating Mithradates and his client soldiers were paid off. Crassus's tax collector pals got to renegotiate their contracts on favorable terms. For his efforts Caesar himself received five years of proconsular imperium in Rome's two Gallic provinces. Building a client army of 30,000 men he conquered and pacified almost the entire area of France, Belgium, and the Netherlands, along with coastal areas of Britain. To make sure that everyone back home knew about his great achievements, Caesar published a series of "commentaries" or books about his Gallic Wars. This was a Roman public relations first. While the members of the Senate's aristocratic faction seethed, the minions of the so-called First Triumvirate maintained their stranglehold on Roman politics.

Predictably, friction arose between Pompey and Crassus, but Caesar held the deal together in 55 BC by a new agreement. In this new agreement, Caesar got five more years of proconsular imperium in Gaul, Pompey got proconsular imperium over Spain and Crassus would have proconsular imperium in the East. Pompey was just as happy to stay home in Rome and rule Spain through his lieutenants; beating Mithradates was a hard act to top. But Crassus yearned to match Caesar's and Pompey's successes. He unwisely picked a fight with the Parthian Empire and was killed in 53 BC. Now that the Triumvirate was down to two people, the Senatorial optimates began to pit Pompey against Caesar. It was essential for Caesar to be elected consul of 49 BC, because it would give him a year's worth of time to settle old accounts with the Senatorial optimates and their new pal Pompey. But the mos maiorum dictated that Caesar would have to lay down his proconsular imperium, enter Rome as a private citizen, and only then campaign for himself. But the instant Caesar set foot in Rome without his imperium or his troops, he would be dragged into court over and over again until his political career was ruined. Of course, this was precisely what the Senate wanted. It commanded Caesar to abandon his Gallic command and return to Rome as a private citizen, once and for all. Instead, in January 49, he brought down his legions from Gaul, crossed the Rubicon river, and started the Civil War of 48-46 BC.