Ancient Rome: An Introductory History (34 page)

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A conspiracy was formed against his life. His officer Perperna assassinated him and took over the command. But Perperna was no match for Pompey, who soon returned to Rome, victorious.

Spartacus

Rome soon faced another rebellion, this one in Italy. In 73
B.C
. a Thracian gladiator named Spartacus led other gladiators in Capua to revolt, and soon many other slaves joined him. The slave army grew so largenumbering seventy thousand menthat Spartacus was able to divide it into three different bodies. Spartacus had the realistic goal not of sacking Rome but simply of making it to the Alps and from there escaping to freedom. Under his leadership the slave army won battles over three different Roman commanders, even capturing one praetor's camp and another praetor's lictors and horse. Eventually the slave troops defeated a consular army of ten thousand soldiers.

Finally, the Senate put Crassus (Sulla's former lieutenant) in charge of the Roman forces, and he won some battles against the slave army. Crassus was eager to complete the war before Pompey arrived from Spain, for he feared that Pompey would get the credit for the victory. Crassus won the last major battle with Spartacus' army, but the fugitives from Spartacus' forces fell in with Pompey's army, which destroyed them; six thousand of the Spartacans who survived were crucified along the Appian Way, to serve as a warning to other slaves. Pompey sent a letter to the Senate with the information that while Crassus had defeated the slave army in a pitched battle, Pompey had "ripped the heart and soul out of the rebellion" (Plutarch,
Crassus
XI). What Crassus had feared became true: Pompey got the credit for the defeat of Spartacus.

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Chapter 19
The Rise of Pompey

Upon his return to Rome in 71
B.C
., after destroying the remnants of Spartacus' army, Pompey did not immediately disband his army; he simply camped his troops outside of Rome while he asked the Senate for a triumph and for permission to run for the consulship of 70. Since people were worried about his intentions, Pompey replied that he would disband his army as soon as he had celebrated his triumph. Pompey had to ask the Senate for permission to run for the consulship because he had not gone through the
cursus honorum
: to run for the consulship, one had to have served as a quaestor and praetor, and the minimum age was forty-two.

In his thirty-six years of life, Pompey had not been elected to any of the offices in the
cursus honorum
. He had fought in his father's army during the Social War, and after his father's death, he had gathered an army of his father's ex-supporters and joined Sulla. Sulla sent Pompey to fight in Gaul, Sicily, and Africa, where he earned the title
imperator
. Upon Pompey's return to Italy, Sulla himself rode out to meet Pompey along the way to Rome, and even addressed him as
magnus
(great), yet at first he refused Pompey's request for a triumph, citing a law that the man holding the triumph must be at least a consul or praetor. Pompey reminded Sulla that people worship the rising, not the setting, sun. Pompey was the first knight to be granted a triumph. He wanted his chariot to be pulled by four elephants, instead of horses, but had to abandon that plan when it was discovered that the elephants would not fit through the city gates. After Sulla's death, Pompey fought Brutus, Lepidus' lieutenant (and father of Caesar's future

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assassin); Sertorius in Spain; and the remains of the Spartacan slave army. Pompey had not been elected quaestor, and by Sulla's reforms he was not eligible even for the Senate; Sulla had probably had just such cases in mind when he passed his reforms.

The Senate hoped to play Crassus and Pompey off against each other, but Crassus, who likewise had not disbanded his army, overcame his suspicion and hatred of Pompey for taking the credit for the victory over Spartacus and took Pompey's side. The Senate, lacking an army, gave in and allowed Pompey to run for the consulship. Crassus and Pompey were then elected consuls for 70. Pompey, who did not even know the rules of procedure in the Senate, had the scholar Varro write him a handbook on how to conduct Senate meetings.

Although they were former partisans of the pro-Senate Sulla, Pompey and Crassus immediately restored to the tribunes the power that Sulla had abolished. Now the tribunes could again pass legislation in the popular assemblies, and the tribunate was no longer a deadend office. Why did they restore the tribunate? They wanted to make themselves popular with the common people, and they wanted the power that came from control of the Popular Assembly; perhaps they also understood that the Senate, after being pressured to allow Pompey to run for the consulate, would not be well disposed toward them in the future and would find ways of getting revenge.

The tribunate performed the valuable function of protecting the common people from the magistrates' abuse of power and ensuring that they had a voice in the government. Since the Gracchi, however, the tribunate had become more of a legislative organ, a function for which it was not originally designed. The tribunes led the Popular Assembly; the decisions it passed, called
plebiscita
, automatically became law, regardless of the Senate. The people attending meetings of the Popular Assembly did not have the wide scope of vision necessary for deciding important issues. Most lacked an elementary education, had no knowledge of or experience in foreign affairs, no knowledge of law, no experience in politics and the machinery of government. Many of those who voted in the Popular Assembly were Rome's unemployed and idle masses, who lived from day to day on subsidized grain: "the scum

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of Romulus," the writer Cicero called them in one of his letters. The Popular Assembly had voted against giving the
socii Italici the
right to vote because they did not want to share the privileges of Roman citizenship with non-Romans; only a threat to Rome's existence convinced the mob to do what was right. Led by an unscrupulous tribune, like Sulpicius or Saturninus, the Popular Assembly could ruin Rome. We will see later what trouble an evil tribune like Clodius could cause in Rome.

Other than restoring the tribunate, Pompey and Crassus accomplished little during their consulship. The rivalry and hostility between them led to inaction and suspicion. At the end of their year in office, they had a public reconciliation.

War Against the Pirates

Pompey soon benefited from restoring the tribunate, for a tribune friendly to him created an extraordinary command for him against the pirates who now ruled the Mediterranean Sea. Their forces are said to have numbered more than a thousand ships, with which they are said to have sacked more than four hundred cities. They even raided and sacked Ostia, the port of Rome, in 68
B.C
. Pirates would capture people and sell them into slavery or else hold them for ransom; they captured two praetors and their lictors, and the daughter of a former consul. One of their most famous victims was the young G. Julius Caesar, whom they held for a ransom of twenty talents. He is said to have ridiculed them, saying that they obviously did not know whom they were holding, and he volunteered to pay fifty talents. Once his ransom was paid and he was released, he gathered together some friends, returned to the pirates who had held him hostage, and crucified them all.

Since merchants feared to sail the seas, the price of grain skyrocketed; led by the tribune Gabinius, the Romans rightly voted for an enormous effort to clear the Mediterranean of pirates, but wrongly voted the command to Pompey. The command of the war against the pirates encompassed great powers: three years' command over the entire Mediterranean, even fifty miles inland into the many provinces, with the commander having equal authority with the governors of those provinces; six thousand talents for

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expenses; two hundred ships; and as many men as necessary. The terms of the command were later enlarged to five hundred ships, one hundred twenty thousand men, five thousand cavalry, and twenty-four
legati
with praetorian power. Once the voters entrusted this huge command to Pompey, the price of grain plummeted; people said that just the
name
Pompey had ended the pirates' domination.

With such a force at his disposal, an unscrupulous commander could have devastated Italy and Rome. Rome was lucky: Pompey was not unscrupulous, only vain. When he addressed the Senate after being given the command, he admonished the senators for overloading him with onerous duties: "Do not conclude that I am still a young man, and don't simply add it up as so many years since I was born. If you count up the armies that I have led, and the risks that I have run, you will find that they are more than my years. Consequently you will be more ready to believe that I can't still be steadfast through the labors and stress" (Dio XXXVI.25).

In spite of the stress, Pompey yielded to the demands of his country and began his operations against the pirates. Within three months he had cleared the Mediterranean of pirates. His forces had seized ninety warships with bronze prows and had captured more than twenty thousand pirates. Instead of executing the prisoners, Pompey settled them inland in underpopulated areas.

War Against Mithridates

The tribune G. Manilius, with help from Cicero (whose speech on the matter survives) and Caesar, next helped Pompey by be-stowing upon him another command as well. Mithridates, king of Pontus, with whom Sulla had reached a hasty peace in 83
B.C
., was again stirring up trouble in Asia. He was not breaking any treaties with Rome in doing so, however, for the Senate had never ratified Sulla's treaty with him. Mithridates now occupied most of Asia Minor, and the people of the Roman province were glad to see him come, for he was rescuing them from oppression by the
publicani
. So rapacious were these tax-collectors that local people are said to have had to sell their adolescent children in order to pay their creditors.

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By 67
B.C
. the Roman general Lucullus had had some success against Mithridates, and by cutting taxes and outlawing exorbitant interest rates he managed to regain the local peoples' allegiance to Rome. Lucullus was not allowed to complete the victory over Mithridates, however, for although he was loved by the local peoples for his fairness and justice, he had made himself very unpopular with the
equites
and his own soldiers. The knights disliked him because he protected the provincials from their depredations, and his soldiers hated his harsh authority and the fact that he had kept them active during two winters. Lucullus' soldiers even mutinied and not infrequently refused to follow orders. Therefore, the
equites
worked to have the command against Mithridates transferred to Pompey, who, they supposed, would let them squeeze as much tax money from the provincials as they could. The bill passed, and Pompey took over the command against Mithridates. He is said to have remarked, upon hearing that he had been given the command, "Damn these neverending laborsit's just one thing after another! It would be so much better if I were a nobody, if I can never stop leading armies and, free from others' envy and jealousy, just live with my wife in the country" (Plutarch,
Pompey
XXX.6). Of course, Pompey was actually thrilled to be given the command.

Pompey replaced Lucullus in Asia and, to spite him, deliberately changed all the arrangements that he had made; upon which Lucullus called Pompey some type of crazy vulture, for he always swooped down upon nearly dead victims to claim the prize and glory. Although he too defeated Mithridates in many battles, like Lucullus Pompey could not capture the slippery Pontic king. Pompey chased Mithridates all over Asia before Mithridates finally committed suicide in 63
B.C
. Pompey had received vast powers to settle affairs in the East after conquering Mithridates; his settlement of Asia created the new Roman provinces of Syria, Judaea, Bithynia, and Pontus. Rome already had the provinces of Asia and Cilicia, and client kings in Armenia and Cappadocia. The triumph that Pompey celebrated upon his return to Rome lasted for two days, which was not long enough for the whole procession, and marked the first time in Roman history when a general had had triumphs for victories in three different continents. Pompey had

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celebrated triumphs for victories in Africa (Libya, as Sulla's lieutenant), Europe (against Sertorius in Spain), and now Asia.

The Conspiracy of Catiline

While Pompey was fighting Mithridates, the situation in Rome was tense because of the political ambitions of L. Sergius Catilina (called by the English form of his name, Catiline). Of Catiline's early career, we know this: As a lieutenant under Sulla, Catiline killed his own brother-in-law and then asked Sulla to add the name to one of the proscription lists, as if the man were still alive. When a woman whom he fell in love with refused to marry him because she feared his full-grown son, Catiline killed his son. Supposedly he had also had relations with a Vestal Virgin. After serving as praetor in Africa, he was brought to trial for extortion, but escaped prosecution with the help of the prosecutor, P. Clodius Pulcher, whose name will be mentioned again when the topic is corruption.

Catiline had failed in his bids to become consul for 65 and 64
B.C
. As a patrician, he felt it both his right to hold a consulship and a pollution of the consulate when a nonpatrician was elected consul. After losing twice, Catiline was urgent in his third attempt to become consul, for the year 63. His urgency was increased by his penchant for living beyond his means; he was hopelessly in debt. To increase his chances of being elected consul for 63, Catiline ran on the platform of
novae tabulae
(cancellation of debts) and redistribution of land. The severely impoverished men who, like Catiline, lived beyond their means and had spent their inheritances, gravitated to him and his revolutionary program: They included impoverished nobles, young men of the equestrian class, and those of Sulla's ex-soldiers who had squandered what they had earned during their military careers. Among his followers were the consul of 71, Lentulus, who had been expelled from the Senate in 70 but elected praetor again for 63, and Publius Sulla, a relative of the dead dicator.

Quintus Curius, one of Catiline's supporters, told his mistress Fulvia about Catiline's plans not just for
novae tabulae
, but also for proscription of the rich and their estates; alarmed, Fulvia talked,

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