CHAPTER II
Cæsar in Spain--The Triumvirate of Cæsar, Pompey, and
Crassus--Cæsar's Agrarian Law--Tumult in the City--Cato
ejected from the Forum -- The Affair of Vettius -- Cæsar
conciliates the Knights -- Is appointed Governor of Gaul -- Gives his
Daughter in Marriage to Pompey
[
8]
Cæsar, who had been chosen prætor for Spain, was
detained in the
city by his creditors, as he owed much more than he could pay, by reason of
his political expenses. He was reported as saying that he needed 25,000,000
sesterces
1 in order to have nothing at all. However, he arranged
with those who were detaining him as best he could and proceeded to Spain.
Here he neglected the transaction of public business, the administration of
justice, and all matters of that kind because he considered them of no use
to his
purposes, but he raised an army and attacked the
independent Spanish tribes one by one until he made the whole country
tributary to the Romans. He also sent much money to the public treasury at
Rome. For these reasons the Senate awarded him a triumph. He was making
preparations outside the walls for a most splendid procession, during the
days when candidates for the consulship were required to present themselves.
It was not lawful for one who was going to have a triumph to enter the city
and then go back again for the triumph. As Cæsar was very anxious
to secure the office, and his procession was not yet ready, he sent to the
Senate and asked permission to stand for the consulship while absent,
through the intercession of friends, for although he knew it was against the
law it had been done by others. Cato opposed his proposition and used up the
last day for the presentation of candidates, in speech making. Thereupon
Cæsar abandoned his triumph, entered the city, offered himself as
a candidate, and waited for the comitia.
[
9]
In the meantime Pompey, who had acquired great glory and power by his
Mithridatic war, was asking the Senate to ratify numerous concessions that
he had granted to kings, princes, and cities. Many senators, however, moved
by envy, made opposition, and especially Lucullus, who had held the command
against Mithridates before Pompey, and who considered that the victory was
his, since he had left the king in a state of extreme weakness for Pompey.
Crassus coöperated with Lucullus in this matter. Pompey was
indignant and made friends with Cæsar and promised under oath to
support him for the consulship. The latter thereupon brought Crassus into
friendly relations with Pompey. Thus these three most powerful men
coöperated together for their mutual advantage. This coalition the
Roman writer Varro treated in a book entitled
Tricaranus (the
three-headed monster).
2 The Senate had its suspicions of them and elected
Lucius Bibulus as Cæsar's colleague to hold him in check.
[
10]
Strife sprang up between them immediately and they proceeded to arm
themselves secretly against each other. Cæsar, who was a master of
dissimulation, made speeches in the Senate in the interest of harmony with
Bibulus, as though he were taking care lest harm should come to the republic
from their disagreement. As he was believed to be sincere, Bibulus was
thrown off his guard. While Bibulus was unprepared and suspecting nothing,
Cæsar secretly got a large band of soldiers in readiness and
brought before the Senate measures for the relief of the poor by the
distribution of the public land to them. The best part of this land around
Capua,
3 which was leased for the
public benefit, he proposed to bestow upon those who were the fathers of at
least three children, by which means he bought for himself the favor of a
multitude of men. Twenty-thousand, who had three children each, came forward
at once. As many senators opposed his motion he
pretended
to be indignant at their injustice, and rushed out of the Senate and did not
convene it again for the remainder of the year,
4 but harangued the people
from the rostra. In a public assembly he asked Pompey and Crassus what they
thought about his proposed laws. Both gave their approval, and the people
came to the voting-place carrying concealed daggers.
[
11]
The Senate (since no one called it together and it was not lawful for one
consul to do so without the consent of the other) assembled at the house of
Bibulus, but did nothing to counteract the force and preparation of
Cæsar. They planned, however, that Bibulus should oppose
Cæsar's laws, so that they should seem to be overcome by force
rather than by their own negligence. Accordingly, Bibulus burst into the
forum while Cæsar was still speaking. Strife and tumult arose,
blows were given, and those who had daggers broke the fasces and insignia of
Bibulus and wounded some of the tribunes who stood around him. Bibulus was
in no wise terrified, but bared his neck to Cæsar's partisans and
loudly called on them to strike. "If I cannot persuade Cæsar to do
right," he said, "I will affix upon him the guilt and stigma of my death."
His friends, however, led him, against his will, out of the crowd and into
the neighboring temple of Jupiter Stator. Cato was indignant at these
proceedings, and, being a young man, forced his way to the midst of the
crowd and began to make a speech, but was lifted up and dragged out by
Cæsar's partisans. Then he went around secretly by another street
and again mounted the rostra; but as he despaired of making a speech, since
nobody would listen to him, he abused Cæsar roundly until he was
ejected by the Cæsarians, and Cæsar secured the
enactment of his laws.
[
12]
The plebeians swore to observe these laws forever, and Cæsar
directed the Senate to do the same. Many of them, including Cato, refused,
and Cæsar proposed and the people enacted the death penalty to the
recusants. Then they became alarmed and took the oath, including the
tribunes,
5 for it was
no longer of any use to speak against it after the law had been confirmed by
the others. And now Vettius, a plebeian, ran into the forum with a drawn
dagger and said that he had been sent by Bibulus, Cicero, and Cato to kill
Cæsar and Pompey, and that the dagger had been given to him by
Postumius, the lictor of Bibulus. Although this affair was open to suspicion
on both sides, Cæsar made use of it to inflame the multitude and
postponed the examination of the assailant. Vettius was thrown into prison
and killed the same night. As this transaction was variously commented on,
Cæsar did not let it pass unnoticed, but said that it had been
done by the opposite party who were afraid of exposure.
6 Finally, the people furnished him a guard to protect him
against conspirators, and Bibulus abstained from public business altogether,
like a private citizen, and did not go out of his house for the remainder of
his official term.
[
13]
As Cæsar now had the sole administration of public affairs, he did
not make any further inquiry concerning Vettius. He brought forward new laws
to win the favor of the multitude, and caused all of Pompey's acts to be
ratified, as he had promised him. The so-called knights, who held the middle
place in rank between the Senate and the plebeians, and were extremely
powerful in all ways by reason of their wealth, and of the farming of the
provincial revenues which they contracted for, and who kept for this purpose
multitudes of very trusty servants, had been asking the Senate for a long
time to release them from a part of what they owed to the treasury. The
Senate was consuming time on this question. As Cæsar did not want
anything of the Senate then, but was employing the people only, he released
the publicans from a third part of their contracts. For this unexpected
favor, which was far beyond their deserts, the knights extolled
Cæsar to the skies. Thus a more powerful body of defenders than
that of the plebeians was added to Cæsar's support through one
political act. He gave spectacles and combats of wild beasts beyond his
means, borrowing money on all sides, and surpassing all former exhibitions
in lavish display and splendid gifts, in consequence of which he was
appointed governor of both Cisalpine and Transalpine Gaul for five years,
with the command of four legions.
[
14]
As Cæsar saw that he would be away from home a long time, and
believed that envy would be in proportion to benefits conferred, he gave his
daughter in marriage to Pompey, although she was betrothed to
Cæpio, because he feared that even a friend might become envious
of his great success. He promoted the boldest of his partisans to the
principal offices for the ensuing year. He designated his friend Aulus
Gabinius as consul, with Lucius Piso as his colleague, whose daughter,
Calpurnia, Cæsar married, although Cato cried out that the
government was debauched by marriages. For tribunes he chose Vatinius and
Clodius Pulcher, although the latter had been suspected of an amour with the
wife of Cæsar himself during a religious ceremony of women,
7 but whom
Cæsar did not bring to trial because Clodius was very popular with
the masses; but he divorced his wife. Others prosecuted Clodius for impiety
at the sacred rites, and Cicero made the argument for the prosecution. When
Cæsar was called as a witness he refused to testify against
Clodius, but even raised him to the tribuneship as a foil to Cicero who was
already decrying the triumvirate as tending toward monarchy. Thus
Cæsar turned a private grievance to useful account and benefited
one enemy in order to revenge himself on another. It appears, however, that
Clodius had previously requited Cæsar by helping him to secure the
governorship of Gaul.