Ancient Rome: An Introductory History (35 page)

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and rumors spread. The rumors of Catiline's revolutionary program alarmed the nobles and the
equites
, who were most often the creditors, and they succeeded in getting two safe candidates elected consuls in 63. They were G. Antonius and a
novus homo
of equestrian family from Arpinum, M. Tullius Cicero.

Cicero had made his first real splash in Roman politics in 70
B.C.
by successfully prosecuting Verres, a governor of Sicily, on charges of extortion of his province. Cicero managed to win the case despite the machinations of Verres' friends; failing to delay the case until 69, when it would be tried under a friendly praetor, they nonetheless managed to delay the beginning of the case until the very last day of the term of the praetor Manius Acilius Glabrio, who apparently was incorruptible (we can assume that attempts at his integrity had been made). Seeing that time was short, Cicero skipped the customary opening speeches and immediately called his witnesses. His case was so overwhelming that Verres did not even bother to defend himself but after only one day of the trial went straight into exile. Cicero differed from other consuls in that he was not primarily a military man. Although he had served as quaestor, aedile, and praetor, and had won honors and a good reputation both in the military and in civilian life, Cicero based his future in Roman politics on his knowledge of law and on his eloquencethat is, his ability to compose and express logical and sensible arguments in language pleasing to the audience's ear, the goal being to persuade his audience to follow his recommendations. After winning his case against Verres and publishing the speeches against himspeeches he had never actually deliveredCicero was acknowledged the best orator in Rome and became known as someone who espoused the conservative values of Italy outside Rome and who supported the rule of the Senate against the
populares
.

In 63, after being delayed because of threats from Catiline, elections were held for 62; Catiline again failed to win the consulate; he was by now a desperate man. He now formed a plan to assassinate Cicero. It was the custom that patrons would open their doors in the morning to receive their guests and clients, who would come to see what assignments the patron had for them; Catiline's accomplices planned to wait outside Cicero's house and

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kill him when he opened his doors the next morning. Gaius Curius, however, became alarmed for Cicero and told Fulvia, who warned Cicero; Cicero foiled his would-be assassins by barring his doors.

Cicero then informed the Senate of the danger, and the Senate passed the
ultimum consultum
. Cicero lacked hard evidence, however; he could only convene the Senate and deliver his ''First Oration against Catiline" (still a staple of third- and fourth-year Latin classes), in which he ordered Catiline to leave the city. To further dramatize the danger, Cicero made sure that everyone saw the breastplate that he was wearing under his toga. Without hard evidence, Cicero and the Senate could do little more than post guards, raise an army, and offer rewards for information. After exclaiming to the Senate that he would extinguish the fires of his own destruction with the ruin of the city, Catiline left Rome for his army in its camp in Etruria and had lictors carry
fasces
before him, as if he were a consul or proconsul.

Catiline proceeded with his plans, which now encompassed open war and chaos. This was his plan for seizing power:

Statilius and Gabinius, with a large band of men, were all ordered to set fire to twelve important parts of the city at the same time, so that during the ensuing confusion they could more easily get at the consul and others whom they were plotting against. Cethegus, meanwhile, would wait at Cicero's door and attack him while someone else killed the other consul. The young men in the conspiracymost of whom were from the noble familieswould kill their parents. When all the Romans were reeling from the slaughter and fire, the conspirators would dash out to Catiline. (Sallust,
Bellum Catilinae
XLIII)

One source reports that they planned also to kidnap Pompey's children and hold them for ransom. They would have needed something extraordinary to control Pompey the Great when he returned to Rome with the army that had just conquered Mithridates.

The hard evidence that Cicero needed soon came. Catiline was trying incite rebellion in different parts of Italy and accordingly

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approached a Gallic tribe called the Allobroges, who had many reasons to hate Roman rule. They decided to reject Catiline's offers to join the conspiracy, and instead they told Cicero of Catiline's offer. Cicero asked the Gauls to play along with Catiline and to fool him into giving them more information about the conspiracy. The Gauls did as they were asked: They pretended to be interested in joining the conspiracy and asked Catiline and the other conspirators for written instructions of what they were to do and written promises of what they would gain, so they could discuss the proposal with other members of their tribe. The Gauls dutifully handed the letter over to Cicero's agents.

Some of the conspirators were then caught. Upon interrogation, they gave more information about the conspiracy. Cicero had the captured conspirators executed; among them was Lentulus, who had been consul in 71 and was praetor this year. The praetor Metellus Celer then defeated Catiline's forces in Etruria; Catiline himself was killed in the hard-fought battle.

Cicero had saved Rome from Catiline, and the victory was importantso important, in fact, that Cicero reminded the Romans of his heroism in practically every speech he gave for the rest of his life. He, a
novus homo
without a great army to back him, had conquered Catiline without disrupting life in the city and without causing a huge uproar. For a while he managed to unite the nobles,
equites
, and common people behind him in defeating Catiline; for that he was given the honorary title
pater patriae
(father of his country). After this victory, Cicero proposed a program that he called
concordia ordinum
(harmony among the classes), by which he hoped to appease the different classes in the city, so that the republic would survive. His program failed, but it did so for reasons beyond his control. He also later paid for that victory over Catiline; despite the
senatus ultimum consultum
, which was supposed to give him more power to save the state, years later he was sent into exile for having executed Roman citizens who had not had an appeal. In fact, on the last day of his term, Cicero was prevented by the tribunes from swearing the oath, customary for a departing consul, that he had not violated the constitution. Instead, Cicero swore that he had saved his country.

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The Bona Dea Scandal

The following year, 62
B.C.
, a scandal broke out among the nobility in Rome that had political repercussions a few years later. It was the custom to have an annual celebration of the Bona Dea (Good Goddess, a goddess probably of health), who was worshipped exclusively by women. The celebration was hosted by the wife of one of the consuls or praetors, with all male creatures (human and animal) leaving the house during the celebration. That year, it was hosted by Pompeia, the wife of Julius Caesar, who was a praetor. The noble P. Clodius Pulcher (Catiline's "prosecutor"), who was in love with Pompeia, dressed himself as a female flute player and had himself brought into the house, to have a tryst with her.

Clodius was discovered inside the house and eventually was put on trial for sacrilege. Caesar refused to give testimony against Clodius, but he did divorce his wife, saying, "Members of my family must be as free of suspicion as of accusations" (Plutarch,
Caesar
X). Cicero did give evidence against Clodius and wrecked his alibi. Nonetheless, Clodius was acquitted because, some say, Crassus had bribed the jury. Clodius did not forget the fact that Cicero had given testimony against him.

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Chapter 20
The First Triumvirate

While Pompey was in the East fighting Mithridates in 65
B.C.
, the Romansand especially Crassusworried: Would Pompey return to Rome as Sulla had? Crassus busied himself with finding a military command for support. The first opportunity was a vacancy in the praetors in Spain. Crassus managed to have Gn. Calpurnius Piso sent as a replacement; Piso hated Pompey. But Crassus' hopes for military support from Piso were dashed when he was killed by the Spanish, who could not bear his arrogance, cruelty, and injustice. Next, Crassus tried to have Egypt annexed as a province, with himself as governor; there he would have a small army and an almost impregnable city, along with the treasury of the Ptolemies. But again he was disappointed. Then Crassus tried to enfranchise Transpadane Gaul, so the Gauls there would be his clients and thus more eager to support him in a showdown with Pompey. That too failed. Last, Crassus contributed money to Catiline's bid for the consulship in 65, so he would have a friend with an army. Catiline was not elected consul. Crassus was so worried that when Pompey was approaching Italy, he packed up his family and left Rome.

Crassus' fears turned out to be unwarranted. Pompey returned in 62 and immediately disbanded his army; he also divorced his wife Mucia who, according to rumor, had been having an affair during his absence from Rome. His triumph lasted for two days. He had captured no fewer than a thousand fortified places, nearly nine hundred cities, and eight hundred pirate ships, and he was bringing twenty thousand talents of gold and silver to the public treasury, in addition to the pay and rewards that he had already

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given his soldiers. Pompey was now truly deserving of his nickname Magnus (the Great).

The Senate too had been afraid of Pompey's return, but in fact he attempted nothing revolutionary. Pompey had only two requests of the Senate: that it ratify his settlement of the East and that it approve a bill to give his veterans land. Since Pompey had enriched the treasury with millions, his requests were not excessive or unrealistic.

Lucullus, whom Pompey had replaced in the command against Mithridates and whose arrangements he had spitefully overturned, now got his revenge. Helped by the consul Metellus, brother of Pompey's ex-wife Mucia, Lucullus led the Senate against Pompey's requests, and the tribunes vetoed the laws that Pompey's associates brought before the Comitia Centuriata. Pompey's enemies in the Senate won: Pompey's veterans did not get their land, and his settlement of the East was not ratified. Pompey is said then to have regretted disbanding his army and leaving himself vulnerable to his enemies.

Pompey was soon approached by Julius Caesar, who saw in the frustrated general an excellent resource for countering his own Optimate enemies in the Senate. Caesar had been praetor in Spain in 61 and hoped to be elected consul for 59; he would need all the allies he could get if he wished to have an effective consulship, for many in the Senate thought him dangerous and would doubtless oppose him, as they had Pompey. Consequently Caesar entered into secret negotiations with Pompey, Crassus (the richest man in Rome), and Cicero (who now was becoming nervous over threats from Clodius) about an alliance by which they would work on each other's behalf against the senatorial opposition. With Pompey's fame and loyal soldiers, Crassus' immeasurable wealth (he once said that a man was not truly wealthy unless he could support an army of forty thousand from his own funds), Cicero's eloquence and respectability, and Caesar's consular power, the four would be unstoppable. Cicero did not join him in the alliance, but Pompey and Crassus did. The alliance, which we call the First Triumvirate, was cemented by the marriage of Caesar's daughter Julia to Pompey in April 59, the year of her father's first consulship.

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