The First Triumvirate is a common name among
historians to refer to the unofficial political
alliance of Gaius Julius Caesar, Marcus Licinius
Crassus, and Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus. Unlike the
somewhat less famous so called "Second Triumvirate",
the First Triumvirate had no official status
whatsoever – its overwhelming power in the Roman
state was strictly unofficial influence – and was in
fact kept secret for some time as part of the
political machinations of the Triumviri themselves.
It formed in 60 BC and lasted until Crassus's death
in 53 BC. Crassus and Pompey had been colleagues
(they had always despised each other) in the
consulate for 70 BC, when they had legislated the
full restoration of the tribunate of the people (the
dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla had stripped the
office of all its powers except the ius auxiliandi,
the right to rescue a plebeian from the clutches of
a patrician magistrate). However, since that time,
the two men had entertained considerable antipathy
for one another, each believing the other to have
gone out of his way to increase his own reputation
at his colleague's expense.
Caesar contrived to reconcile the two men, and
then combined their clout with his own to have
himself elected consul in 59 BC; he and Crassus were
already the best of friends, and he solidified his
alliance with Pompey by giving him his own daughter
Julia in marriage. The alliance combined Caesar's
enormous popularity and legal reputation with
Crassus's fantastic wealth and influence within the
plutocratic Ordo Equester and Pompey's equally
spectacular wealth and military reputation.
The Triumvirate was kept secret until the Senate
obstructed Caesar's proposed agrarian law
establishing colonies of Roman citizens and
distributing portions of the public lands (ager
publicus). He promptly brought the law before the
Council of the People in a speech which found him
flanked by Crassus and Pompey, thus revealing the
alliance. Caesar's agrarian law was carried through,
and the Triumviri then proceeded to allow the
demagogue Publius Clodius Pulcher's election as
tribune of the people, successfully ridding
themselves both of Marcus Tullius Cicero and Marcus
Porcius Cato, both adamant opponents of the
Triumviri.
The Triumvirate proceeded to make further
arrangements for itself. The senate awarded Caesar,
as a snub to his dealings in the Triumvirate, "the
woods and paths of Italy" as his proconsul
territory. Caesar passed, through a tribune, his own
ruling on the matter, and became proconsul of both
Gauls (Gallia Cisalpina and Gallia Transalpina) and
of Illyricum, with command of four legions, for five
years; Caesar's new father-in-law, Lucius Calpurnius
Piso Caesoninus, was made consul for 58 BC, and
Pompey and Crassus shared a second consulate in 55
BC. Pompey and Crassus then extended Caesar's
proconsular government in the Gauls for another five
years and secured for themselves as proconsuls the
government of both Hispanias (Hispania Citerior and
Hispania Ulterior) and of Syria, respectively, for
five-year terms.
The alliance had allowed the Triumviri to
dominate Roman politics completely, but it would not
last indefinitely due to the ambitions, egos, and
jealousies of the three; Caesar and Crassus were
implicitly hand-in-glove, but Pompey disliked
Crassus and grew increasingly envious of Caesar's
spectacular successes in the Gallic War, whereby he
annexed the entirety of modern France to Rome.
Julia's death during childbirth and Crassus's
ignominious defeat and death at Carrhae at the hands
of the Parthians in 53 BC seriously undermined the
alliance.
Pompey remained in Rome – he governed his Spanish
provinces through lieutenants – and remained in
virtual control of the city throughout that time. He
gradually drifted further and further from his
alliance with Caesar, eventually marrying the
daughter of Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius
Cornelianus Scipio Nasica, one of the boni ("Good
Men"), an archconservative faction of the Senate
steadfastly opposed to Caesar. Pompey was elected
consul without colleague in 52 BC, and took part in
the politicking which led to Caesar's crossing of
the Rubicon in 49 BC, starting the Civil War. Pompey
was made commander-in-chief of the war by the
Senate, and was defeated by his former ally Caesar
at Pharsalus. Pompey's subsequent murder in Egypt in
an inept political intrigue left Caesar sole master
of the Roman world. |