Julius Caesar : Politics (77 - 59 BCE)
From History of the Hellenistic and Roman World
- M. Bibulus observed that his lot was like that of Pollux: "For consider," said he, "the temple erected in the common market place of Rome unto the twin-brethen, Castor and Pollux, bears the name of Castor alone; even so, the munificence which Caesar and I provide jointly goes under the name of Caesar only."
- - Suetonius, Caius Julius Caesar 10
Stepping unto the Scene
Caesar entered the political arena dramatically in 77, when he prosecuted the corrupt Gnaeus Cornelius Dollabella, a consular and former lieutenant of Sulla. Dollabella was defended by the leading advocate of the day, Quintus Hortensius and subsequently acquitted, but the case clearly signalled Caesar's position in the popularis camp. A year later, Caesar prosecuted Gaius Antonius Hybrida who was forced to bribe his way out of the charges by buying the veto-powers of the tribunes of the plebs. Caesar's speeches during these prosecutions impressed his hearers, and his reputation as an orator was born.
It was to polish his rhetorical skills that Caesar set out for Rhodes in 75 to study under the famous teacher Apollonius Molon. En route he was captured by pirates, who kept him captive for thirty-eight days. Upon hearing that his ransom would be 20 talents, he haughtily demanded that it be raised to 50. He spent his time writing poetry and telling the pirates that he would return and crucify them (which they found very funny). Ransomed at last, he immediately raised a fleet, pursued the pirates and carried out his promise. When Mithridates began the Third Mithridatic War Caesar travelled to Asia, collected an army of provincial troops and defeated the King's vanguard. Both his acts -- the hanging of the pirates and the defence of Asia -- were illegal, as Caesar was a private citizen without any imperium. However, no charges were made against him.
Caesar was always generous with his money. It is unclear exactly when Crassus and Caesar became allies, but it is likely that they had an understanding already before 70, by which time Caesar was already heavily in doubt. The two men maintained close connections and were probably friends as well as political allies; Caesar's expensive lifestyle and career was in large part financed by the wealthy Crassus.
In 69, Caesar's aunt Julia, the widow of Gaius Marius, died. Caesar took the unprecedented step of holding a laudatio (public funerary eulogy) for her, though it was quite unprecedented to give such honor to a woman. During his speech, he again crossed the optimates by praising both Marius and Cinna, to the great delight of the common people. In doing so, he marked himself out as the new Marius; the common people's champion. His burgeoning popularity easily secured him the office of Quaestor in 69, the first rung on the Roman political ladder.
Later that year Cornelia, Caesar's wife and the mother of his daughter Julia, died. Caesar again held a laudatio though this time his speech held fewer political overtones. Still in mourning, Caesar left Rome to serve with Antistius Vetius the Governor of Hispania Ulterior. These years were bleak ones for Caesar, who had just lost his beloved wife, and with his personal finances perilous. It is during this period of his life that Caesar is reputed to have looked upon a statue of Alexander the Great in Cadiz and burst into tears:
- His friends were surprised, and asked him the reason of it. "Do you think," said he, "I have not just cause to weep, when I consider that Alexander at my age had conquered so many nations, and I have all this time done nothing that is memorable."
- - Plutarch, Life of Caesar
Fortunately for him, Vetius was an incorruptible and reputable man who realised that Caesar was temporarily unbalanced, and dealt with him symphatetically. Permitted by Vetius to leave Spain prematurely, he travelled through Cisalpine Gaul where he listened to the complaints of the local communities. The Cisalpines wanted citizenship, something that the Senate in Rome would never grant them. He would have encouraged rebellion if the consuls for the year had not held back the legions enrolled for the wars in Cilicia due to the threat of unrest. His actions invited a charge of high treason, but nothing came of it. He and the Cisalpines were not to forget each other, however.
Climbing the cursus honorum
In 67, Caesar married Pompeia, a distant relative of Pompey, and perhaps the first indication that Caesar had entered into alliance with Pompey. Whereas Pompey was a hopeless orator and a mediocre politician, and Crassus widely hated by the people for his part in Sulla's proscriptions, Caesar was a born orator and immensely popular with the people. While he needed Crassus's immense wealth and Pompeius' influence, they needed him just as much for his ability to handle the plebs.
Caesar was elected Curule Aedile in 65, with Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus, an Optimate, as his colleague. In the course of the year, he supported both the lex Gabinia, empowering Pompey with an "extraordinary" command against the pirates, a campaign that Pompey concluded in 40 days; and the lex Manilia, which extended Pompey's command to campaign against Mithridates.
Caesar's tenure as a Curule Aedile was characterized by lavish public games, as usual paid for with borrowed money. By this time, he was the most controversial political personality of his day. In their consulate, Pompeius and Crassus had restored most of the rights of the People's Assembly. Caesar now restored to the Forum the statues of Marius that Sulla had ordered to be removed. The Optimates raged, but dared do nothing in the face of public approval.
63-62 were turbulent years for Caesar. His debts were now astronomical, and his creditors loosing patience. Seeking election as Pontifex Maximus, he is said to have kissed his mother and said:
- "Today you will see me either High Priest or an exile."
Caesar won easily and was elected Praetor for 62. Since such a post was normally followed by a lucrative governorship, his creditors were mollified for the time being.
After the suppression of Catiline's conspiracy, both Caesar and Crassus were accused of complicity, although no charges were brought against them. The Consul Marcus Tullius Cicero asked the Senate for the conspirators to be executed, but was opposed by Caesar, who proposed that they should be dealt with less severely.
This sentence of his carried so much appearance of humanity, and he gave it such advantage by the eloquence with which he urged it, that not only those who spoke after him closed with it, but even they who had before given a contrary opinion now came over to his, till it came about to Catulus's and Cato's turn to speak. They warmly opposed it, and Cato intimated in his speech the suspicion of Caesar himself, and pressed the matter so strongly that the criminals were given up to suffer execution. As Caesar was going out of the senate, many of the young men who at that time acted as guards to Cicero ran in with their naked swords to assault him. But Curio, it is said, threw his gown over him, and conveyed him away, and Cicero himself, when the young men looked up to see his wishes, gave a sign not to kill him, either for fear of the people or because he thought the murder unjust and illegal. Plutarch, Life of Caesar
Were Caesar and Crassus implicated in the conspiracy? It is quite possible that they were, as Pompey by this time seemed an even greater threat than Sulla had ever been. However if this was the case, they very quickly gave up Catilinias's case as lost; Crassus himself was instrumental in bringing the conspiracy down. These were turbulent years, not just for Caesar, but for Rome as well, as the world waited with bated breath for the return of the conquering hero, Pompey.
Towards the end of his term as Praetor, Caesar was suspended from his post along with the tribune Caecilius Metellus Nepos. Nepos had been working to grant Pompeius, who was soon to return from the East, a mandate to restore order in Italy. This motion was defeated by the optimates, led by the ultra-conservative Tribune of the Plebs Marcus Porcius Cato the Younger.
Nepos held a public meeting in which he furiously denounced the optimates for conspiring against Pompey -- they would rue the day they - had insulted so great a man - and left for Rhodes to report to Pompey. It is amusing to consider the scene as Nepos tried to explain to Pompey how, with popular support, the backing of Pompey's faction, and the help of a troop of gladiators, he had only succeeded in making himself a laughing stock, and Cato, a hero.
Caesar was much smarter. He continued exercising his office until it was made clear that he would be removed by force, and retired to his house. When an angry crowd gathered outside his house to promise support, he calmed it down, and was subsequently reinstated by a grateful group of senior senators. A subsequent legal attack on Caesar on the grounds that he had been implicated in the Catiline conspriracy was easily parried when Caesar got Cicero to attest that he had received valuable information about the conspirators from Caesar. Caesar's accuser was seized and thrown in prison.
Pompey's return to Rome dispelled the fears of the Senate, as Pompey immediately dispelled his army. He also divorced his wife Mucia, the half-sister of Nepos, a clear indication that he was not pleased with his confederate.
At the end of Caesar's praetorship, the scandal of the century was caused by Publius Clodius who entered Caesar's house while a celebration was being held in honour of the Bona Dea, a deity of fruitfulness both for the Earth and for women, from which all males were barred. Caesar's wife Pompeia seems to have been involved, and although Caesar otherwise kept a low profile during this time, he divorced her. When the prosecution against Clodius wondered at this, Caesar said:
- "Caesar's wife must be above suspicion."
Caesar now looked forward to his governorship; an opportunity for him to earn some badly needed money. The lots awarded him Hispania Ulterior as province; the man he picked as his Quaestor was the son of former superior, Vetius. Due to the scandal caused by Clodius, the lots had been delayed, so that Caesar's imperium had expired. Without imperium, Caesar was vulnerable to prosecution by his creditors. Despite Crassus standing bail by paying off a quarter of Caesar's debts, Caesar actually fled the city before his appointment had been formally ratified.
But Caesar's proverbial luck held good once more. A swift and successful military expedition to the Northwest frontier of his province enabled him to win sufficient loot to demand a Triumph, as well as allowing him to settle with the most demanding of his creditors.Once again skirting the edges of the law, he left his province before his successor arrived, in order to stand for the office of Consul in 59.
The Consul
Despite his great successes in the East, Pompey found few new allies in the Senate, and the Senate, influenced by Crassus and the Optimates, embarrassed him by refusing to ratify his decisions in the East. Even worse, he failed to get through the land bills which were supposed to secure land for his veterans. At the same time, Crassus was in need of several concessions to the Asian tax farmers, in whose companies he probably had much of his capital tied up. These too were opposed by the Senate.
Meanwhile, Caesar's candidature as consul was being blocked by the legal chicanery of Cato and the Optimates, who forced him to choose between celebrating his Triumph or standing for Consul. He decided to give up his Triumph and entered Rome to stand for Consul. He then reconciled his two primary allies, Pompey and Crassus. Caesar's popularity with the people, Pompey's prestige and Crassus's riches were an irresistible combination which was further strengthened later on by the marriage of Pompey to Caesar's daughter, Julia. Caesar himself married Calpurnia, daughter of Lucius Piso, who was to be elected Consul in 58, and another member of the amicitia (coalition) which would (misleadingly) be named the first triumvirate.
There was little doubt that Caesar would win the election, therefore Cato and the Optimates did everything in their power to prevent him acquiring the military command he sought, and even managed to get supervision of forest and cattle trails in Italy as the proconsular task for the following year. After massive bribery, they secured election of Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus, to the other Consulship.
Although Caesar, Crassus and Pompeius were the dominant figures of the amicitia, they were very interested in harnessing the resources of as many senators as possible, including Cicero. But Cicero refused them and for the time being, the three kept their alliance secret. Caesar and Bibulus took up the office as Consul on the first of January, 59. It was the Roman custom to name the year after the incumbents, but from the start, Caesar isolated and cowed his colleague so much that the year was later jokingly referred to as the year of the Consuls Julius and Caesar.
The Optimates raged against the triumvirate but dared not take action. The triumvirate (or factio, as it was also called) was entirely legal and with a Populist Consul, Rome, for the first time in her history of the Republic, had something resembling a majority government. And Caesar's initiatives marked him out as a true man of the people. His first decree was to ensure that the Senate's debates and proceedings were to be officially recorded and published, its business made accesible to the citizen body. But Caesar was also eager to restore the dignity of the Consulship and show a proper respect for the mos maiorum (established order of things). In the alternate month when his colleague was Senior Consul, he ordered that his lictors should follow, rather than precede him, and he assured the Senate that he would not bring in any legislation against their interests.
The main order of business for was a much-needed land reform; both to ensure the grants of land for Pompey's veterans, and to finally carry through the land reforms blocked earlier in 63 and 60. Caesar's work was thorough and impartial; to prove it he went through the text clause by clause in the Senate, inviting criticism and offering to delete anything that the Senate did not like. His law would not touch the politically explosive Campanian land, it would bring desolate areas of italy back into cultivation, put Roman citizens back on farms rather than letting them run riot in the city. The money to do this was available, due to Pompey's conquest of the east, and Caesar as the proposer was specifically excluded from being part of the commission to allot lands, and thus could not directly benefit. What was there in this law for the Senate to fear?
His opponents had no answer. But the arch-conservative Cato opposed the law on principle, simply because it was an innovation and proposed by Caesar, and therefore to be resisted. Seeing that the Senate would not be budged, Caesar now took the bill to before the People's Assembly; it was now up to them to decide. Caesar called Bibulus to the rostra and asked him what he thought of the law.
"I will have no innovations in my year of office."
Caesar persisted, telling the people that the bill would pass if only Bibulus would agree. Bibulus answer was:
"I don't care if you all want it; you shan't have it this year."
Having clearly shown that the optimates had no respect at all for the sovereign people, Caesar called up Pompey and Crassus, who each spoke their support, and for the first time revealed their political alliance. Cato, Bibulus, and several optimate tribunes attempted to obstruct the bill, but there was nothing they could do. When they tried, a riot broke out. Bibulus's consular insignia were broken (he also had a basket of excrement emptied on him), one tribune who attempted to veto the law was hurled down the steps of the comitia tribuna, several people were injured, and the rest of the conservative hardliners were forcibly removed. The bill was then voted into law.
Bibulus's credibility was destroyed, and he retired to his home to watch the skies for portents, hoping to declare Caesar's laws illegal on religious grounds. Caesar too had lost his patience with the Senate, who would rather follow the lead of a tradition-bound conservative like Cato, than think of the good of Rome. He took no other measures to the Senate, and Pompey's settlements of the East and Crassus problems were both solved by laws passed in the People's Assembly. He also tightened the laws to punish misconduct by provincial governors.
A letter from Cicero to his friend and publisher Titus Pomponius Atticus, paints a vivid picture of the political atmosphere of the time.
I have received several letters from you, and they gave me an idea of the anxious suspense with which you are waiting for news. Every single outlet is blocked to us...everyone groans about the situation, and not a voice is raised to suggest remedies for it. What those in charge have in mind, I suspect, is to make sure that there is nothing left which anyone else beside themselves might be able to offer as a bribe! Only one man opens his mouth and speaks against them publicly and that is young Curio. Rightminded people give him tremendous applause... Cicero, Ad Atticum 2,3
Pompey and Crassus had got what they wanted, it was now Caesar's turn. With the support of Piso and Pompeius, the tribune Vatinius arranged for Caesar to get a five-year command of Cisalpine Gaul and Illyricum. When the governor-designate of Transalpine Gaul suddenly died, this province was also assigned to Caesar. Cisalpine Gaul, gave Caesar a military recruiting ground; Transalpine Gaul would be the springboard for conquest.
