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Roman Republic 7a 50’s BC The First Triumvirate Caesar Pompey Crassus

Roman Republic 7a 50’s BC The First Triumvirate Caesar Pompey Crassus. Alliance between Caesar, Pompey, & Crassus (from 59BC). Alliance ( amitica ) needed to deal with optimate obstruction. senate blocked Caesar’s triumph for Spanish war & him standing in absenta for consul.

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Roman Republic 7a 50’s BC The First Triumvirate Caesar Pompey Crassus

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  1. Roman Republic 7a 50’s BCThe First Triumvirate CaesarPompey Crassus

  2. Alliance between Caesar, Pompey, & Crassus (from 59BC) • Alliance (amitica) needed to deal with optimate obstruction. • senate blocked Caesar’s triumph for Spanish war & him standing in absenta for consul. • Crassus & Pompey needed a sympathetic consul (Caesar) • To ratifying Pompey’s acta in the East, & land for his veterans • Crassus’s wish for tax relief for his supporters (equestrians) • Caesar needed Pompey’s clients & Crassus money to be elected. • Caesar won the consulship for 59BC so Senate tried to ruin his term • through bribery got their man as co-consul (Bibulous) • Voted the Italian woodlands (not some rich region abroad) as his pro-consular province. • meaning Caesar would be denied rich pickings and famous conquests have given • for Crassus & Pompey • Caesar had Pompey’s Asian acta ratified & (for Crassus) tax relief for equites • 1/3 of their losses in Asia reimbursed. • bribed a tribune to have all Pompey’s acta ratified (made legal) • Proposed a law toget Pompey’s veterans land near Rome • senate refused him because the optimates were worried about Pompey’s veterans being settled close to Rome, and their land in Campania being taken, so had to go directly to the assembly (used a tribune). • The Optimate’s consul used his consular power to declare all days left to discuss laws fasti “sacred” days • Caesar ignored him –ruled alone (a current joke-Julius & Caesar are the years consuls). • Bibulus & his supporters were driven from the forum, his lectors beaten up and fasces destroyed • Pompey’s mobs ensured it passed (& a clause demanding each senator pledged not to have it overturned!) • Caesar’s methods left him open to serious legal challenge when his imperium expired • Which is why he fought so hard for the next decade to keep pro-consular imperium. • Pompey pleased with outcome but not Caesar’s means, so a marriage bond was arranged • Caesar married his daughter Julia to Pompey to hold their alliance together • Caesar now saw to his interests (despite optimate opposition)– • Got tribune sponser a change to his provincia to Cisalpine Gaul & Illyricum for 5 yrs • with 3 legions and opportunities for wealth • governor of transalpine Gaul died & Caesar got that too

  3. (& 1 extra legion) & right to create legates & colonies. • Tactically important – he could recruit from cisAG & attack approaching Germans from transAG • Delayed the Gaul war to build up his war chest ( got a massive bribe from Egypt’s king Ptolemy seeking recognition). • Optimate resistance rose when they discovered the triumvirate so Caesar took steps to ensure his work couldn’t be undone when his term expired (December) • so father-in-law Calpurnius made next consul, & a ‘curse clause’ introduced into consuls oath of office. • Clodius (ruined in Bona Dei scandal) wanted some political influence, & to pay back Cicero. • Caesar (Pontifex maximus) & allowed his adoption by a plebian family so he could become their ‘pet’ tribune • As a tribune in 58BC he became a leader of the populare faction and hurt the optimates • Voted free corn to citizens (grain-dole), which wrecked the corn markets into the future • Formed “collegia” - trade guild gangs (to bully and control their districts & politics in the coming years) • Got rid of Cato to Sicily (got him a humiliating govt job) • Got Cicero exiled from Rome • by passing a law to exile anyone who had put a citizen to death without trial (as he had in 63 to the Catiline conspirators) • his homes in Rome and country were demolished and a shrine to libertas erected in its place! • Next Clodius began to attack Pompey using the increasingly violent gangs • Revenge for lack of support in the bona dei trial, or to get in with optimates for his own career hopes? • Forced Pompey to retire and use his own gangs in self defence – and gang warfare became a feature on Rome • In 57BCE Pompey called Cicero back to Rome as a voice for the republican mos maiorum (but Caesar put limits on him) • Strains on triumvirate of Caesar (in his Gaul province), Pompey (in semi retirement), & Crassus (now largely sidelined) • Rome’s increasing grain shortage due to Clodius’ free grain in 58BC & trouble in Egypt • Cicero argued that Pompey be given a 5 yr imperium to fix corn supply • Cicero & the optimates saw the chance to destroy the triumvirate by winning Pompey’s support • Formally challenged legality of Caesar’s laws as Consul in 59 – threatening to recall him from Gaul to face charges • Even Pompey supported this (trying to show Caesar he was still a force in Rome?) • 56BC, they met in Lucca (Nth Italy) in order to renew their triumvirate (with 200 senators) • Agreed that Pompey & Crassus would be Consuls the next year • & they would renew Caesar’s proconsular imperium for another 5 yrs (keeping him safe from prosecution by Cato)

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