Pompey’s influence outside optimate circles remained strong. L. Afranius, a new man and a close friend of Pompey, was returned as consul, owing to the great man’s endorsement and lavish bribes. His colleague, however, was Q. Metellus Celer, the brother of Metellus Nepos, whom Pompey had recently dismissed. Afranius, though a brave soldier and a reliable commander, lacked the resources necessary for subduing the Senate. Pompey arrogantly demanded that his eastern acts be ratified by the Senate en bloc. His enemies, however, were mobilized to resist: Celer opposed so summary a review, a line that was fortified by Cato, by Crassus, and by Lucullus, who had come out of retirement to insist that each of Pompey’s arrangements be examined in turn and in detail. Afranius was no match for these, and Pompey was forced to accept defeat. He found a more robust representative in the tribune L. Flavius, who proposed an agrarian bill that, like the bill of Plotius in 70 and Rullus in 63, would provide land for Pompey’s veterans. The predictable controversies ensued. Celer’s resistance was so stiff that, in the end, Pompey once more let the matter drop.
Crassus was in no position to luxuriate in his rival’s distress. The publicani who had won the normally lucrative contract to collect taxes in the province of Asia had discovered that their bid was too high. In order to avoid losses, they requested a reconsideration of their original arrangement, an action that Cicero deemed dishonorable but which he nevertheless supported for the sake of political harmony. Another influential advocate of the publicans’ cause was Crassus, who, it is plausibly asserted, was himself invested in their society. 6 Again there was opposition. Celer rejected the idea of salvaging the publicani, as did Cato, whose virulent posture Cicero regarded as impolitic and dangerous.27
Enter Caesar, whose first opportunity to stand for the consulship fell in 60. An uprising in Spain, during his tenure as provincial governor, had enabled him to win a victory sufficient to merit a triumph, which meant a glorious homecoming that could only add luster to his candidacy. Caesar had valuable and wealthy friends, the chief of whom were Pompey and Crassus, men whose interests he had long and publicly upheld. It was time to demand reciprocity. In view of such circumstances, Caesar could only be optimistic. But he came to Rome later than he expected, and it was not possible for him to arrange his triumph in time to make the formal announcement obligatory for each candidate for office (the professio): in order to celebrate his triumph, Caesar must possess imperium, which would lapse if he should transgress the pomerium, the religious boundary of the city (distinct from the actual walls of the city or the limits of its habitation); yet it was necessary for a candidate to make his professio in person, and this required crossing the pomerium.28 Therefore Caesar wrote to the Senate requesting that he be allowed to present his professio in absence.
But he did not reckon with Cato. Cato’s son-in-law, M. Calpurnius Bibulus, was also a candidate for the consulship of 59, and he could not have relished Caesar’s competition: in 65, when each was aedile, Caesar had completely overshadowed his colleague, and it was known that Caesar now intended to throw his support behind yet another candidate, L. Lucceius, a friend of Pompey. And so Cato now deployed his constitutional rectitude in the hope of improving Bibulus’ prospects.29 It was obvious to Cato that Caesar would choose his triumph over his candidacy, which, after all, he could postpone until the next year. The Senate was persuaded, and no exemption was granted. But Cato misjudged his man: Caesar abandoned his triumph, entered the city, and made his professio. Pompey and Crassus backed him - and worked against Bibulus. The optimates, however, spent lavishly in winning voters for Bibulus: ‘‘even Cato agreed that, in this instance, bribery was done for the sake of the Republic’’ (Suet. lul. 19.1). In the end, the voters did not share in their partisanship: both Caesar and Bibulus were returned, and many voters will have voted for both men.30
For Crassus and for Pompey, this was very much a mixed result. Each could rely on Caesar, but Bibulus was a formidable man who was certain to extend Cato’s and the optimates’ resistance to their interests. But Caesar was ambitious, and indebted, and he was not prepared to see his political career end with his consulship. He succeeded in persuading Pompey and Crassus that, if the three of them should cooperate, they would have the resources necessary to advance their projects even in the teeth of Bibulus and Cato. Consequently, the three cultivated a friendship that has come to be known as the First Triumvirate.31 The three also sought Cicero’s inclusion, but the orator refused. When it became known, the triumvirs’ alliance was regarded with suspicion. For Caesar, however, this ‘‘three-headed monster,’’ as Varro dubbed it (App. B Civ. 2.9), excelled expectations: at once he was the partner, and no longer simply the junior friend, of two magnates.
Caesar began graciously. He displayed deference to the Senate and to his colleague. When he proposed an agrarian law, to meet the needs of Pompey’s veterans, it included stipulations and safeguards that ought to have satisfied past opponents of Rullus and of Flavius. Caesar discussed his bill in the Senate, and offered to emend its details. None of this, however, placated Bibulus - or the many in the Senate who simply could not abide the idea of the state’s buying and distributing land to veterans and to the poor. Cato obstructed debate by filibuster. Caesar’s attempt to silence him was deemed too aggressive and offended the Senate.
Caesar then turned to the People. Bibulus had tribunes enough to veto the measure, but Caesar had a champion in the tribune P. Vatinius, an unattractive but valiant ‘‘new man,’’ who, the optimates realized, would run roughshod over any colleague who tried to block Caesar’s law. Consequently, Bibulus turned to a new tactic: consuls, praetors, and tribunes had the authority to observe the heavens for ill omens {spectio), the report of which (obnuntiatio) required the postponement of any legislative or electoral assembly. Bibulus announced that on every night preceding an assembly, he would watch the sky. Ordinarily, the mere announcement of an observation was sufficient to cancel an assembly, though technically it was the report that actually enacted the effects of an omen (a distinction that was lost on most Romans and evaded even most members of the Senate). 2 But it was unnatural for a magistrate to employ spectio in order to paralyze government for an entire year (Bibulus had declared in public that the People would not have this agrarian law during his consulship). Enormity begat enormity. Ignoring Bibulus, Caesar set a date for a vote on his bill. The Forum was packed with Pompey’s veterans, into which company Bibulus and his entourage, which included Cato and three tribunes, forced their way. The consul was heaped with excrement but succeeded in reaching the platform where he intended to announce the omens. This he was prevented from doing by violence: a riot - and injuries - ensued. Bibulus and his followers were ejected, after which Caesar’s bill was passed into law. Caesar then demanded that all senators take an oath of obedience to his agrarian law: in the end, even Cato capitulated.
The Senate was shaken. Bibulus, and the three tribunes who supported him, retired from public life. They continued to observe the heavens and to announce unfavorable omens by edict, a practice that put in doubt the legality of all the legislation of the year and certainly emphasized the violent nature of Caesar’s consulship. These gestures were not pointless: over the course of the year, the shamelessness of the triumvirs became offensive to the Roman People, who did not hesitate to express themselves with public hissing and booing, and the Senate simmered in its resentment at their outrageous methods. The triumvirs, it could be complained, held the gods and the Senate in contempt.
But for the first months of 59, Caesar was unstoppable. In collaboration with Vatinius, he ignored the Senate and brought directly to the People legislation that satisfied the publicani and ratified Pompey’s eastern settlement. He sealed his friendship with Pompey by becoming his father-in-law, proof of the permanence of their relationship and of their future cooperation. Vatinius carried a law that created a special command for Caesar in Cisalpine Gaul and Illyria: it extended for five years, and granted him command of three legions. In the Senate, Pompey proposed - and the Senate conceded - that Transalpine Gaul and an additional legion be added to Caesar’s command.
As the year passed, however, the People as well as the senatorial rank and file became dissatisfied with the triumvirate’s tactics. Pompey, the most distinguished of the three, became the principal target of public disapproval. Consequently, the triumvirs were obliged to take seriously Bibulus’ religious challenge to Caesar’s and Vatinius’ legislation, and they worried over the inevitable reaction when Caesar no longer held the executive power of the consulship.33 An ominous sign of discontent came when Cicero, while pleading a case, seized the moment to savage the current government. Caesar and Pompey responded immediately. Cicero’s enemy, Clodius Pulcher, had, since the disgrace of the Bona Dea scandal, been striving to transfer himself from patrician to plebeian status: by doing so he would become eligible for election as tribune, in which office he hoped to rebound from the setback of his humiliating public trial. The mechanisms for such a transfer were obscure, and Clodius had experienced one setback after another.34 Now, however, Caesar, as consul, summoned the curiate assembly, which ratified Clodius’ adoption by a plebeian. Pompey, who was an augur, was present to guarantee the absence of untoward omens. Suddenly a plebeian, Clodius was eligible for the tribunate in 58, in which office he could harass his enemy (in response to Clodius’ adoption Cicero retired to his villas in the country) and could employ his veto to protect the triumvirs from hostile decrees and legislation. One tribune was insufficient for absolute security, but the triumvirs were fortunate in the outcome of the consular elections: Gabinius was elected along with L. Calpurnius Piso, a noble who was also the father-in-law of Caesar.
Clodius, however, had no intention of serving simply as the triumvirate’s rear guard. On the first day of his new office, Clodius promulgated, and subsequently carried, four laws. The first established a free monthly ration of grain for Roman citizens. The second restored the collegia suppressed by senatorial decree and established new ones. Collegia were neighborhood associations, at once religious and occupational: they were attractive to the lower classes and consequently seemed suspicious to many elites. The local prestige of these organizations was enhanced by Clodius’ employment of them in the distribution of free grain. These laws made Clodius sensationally popular with the urban plebs for the rest of his life. But the tribune was aware of the danger of appearing too obviously a demagogue. He also passed a law that guaranteed every senator a public hearing before he could be expelled by the censors during their revision of the senate list, which won the appreciation of the Senate’s vulnerable membership. And he regulated obnuntiatio:. the controversy over Bibulus’ actions in 59 had made it clear that many senators could no longer distinguish spectio from obnuntiatio; Clodius’ law simply codified in public law what was already definitive in augural law. It was not retroactive and so did nothing to settle the controversy over Caesar’s acts. By means of this careful legislative package, which included measures attractive to more than one section of society, Clodius acquired urban clout without sacrificing senatorial respectability.35 This made him less susceptible to the control of the triumvirs.
At first he was loyal. Clodius rescued Vatinius from his enemies and protected Caesar’s acts. But the tribune complicated politics when he put forward a measure banishing anyone who had put a citizen to death without trial: the law was popularis - and entirely traditional. But its obvious target was Cicero, owing to his role in the execution of the Catilinarian conspirators. Clodius promulgated his law in conjunction with a measure that awarded the consuls attractive provinces, thereby winning their loyalty. He also proposed an extraordinary command for Cato, who was to be granted imperium in order to supervise Rome’s annexation of Cyprus, a signal honor. Clodius thus neutralized the optimates by implicating their spokesman in his legislative program. For Cicero this was a lethal combination, and he retreated from the city. The orator’s property was then plundered, while Clodius passed another law that banished Cicero by name. He erected, over the ruins of Cicero’s mansion on the Palatine Hill, a shrine to the goddess Libertas.
World History
