Ancient Rome: An Introductory History (37 page)

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Eventually, Pompey realized that he needed Cicero and that he could earn Cicero's gratitude if he secured his recall from exile. Pompey therefore called for help from his many clients and organized his own gang under the leadership of T. Annius Milo, to support a law proposed by Quintus Cicero (Cicero's younger brother) to recall his brother from exile. The day before the vote on the law, there was a huge fight in the Forum between the sides of Clodius and Milo; the streets had to be washed to remove the blood. The law passed, and in 57
B.C.
Cicero returned triumphant from exile. The Senate voted to have Cicero's house and villas rebuilt at public expense.

Yet Clodius was not finished. A few of Cicero's letters tell us of Clodius' activities:

On November 6 [57] our carpenters [who were rebuilding Cicero's house] were driven from the building site, since Clodius' men had come, bearing weapons. Catulus' portico, which was being repaired in accordance with a decree of the Senate, was destroyed; it was near completion. Quintus' house was first damaged by rocks thrown from our building site, and then it was set on fire, at the order of Clodius. The city was watching as the fires were tossed on, and all people were groaning and crying [for me]. . . . He rushed around, a madman. After that bit of insanity, he thought of nothing but the slaughter of his enemies, and he went from village to village, openly offering the hope of freedom to slaves. . . . On November 12, as I was coming down the Sacred Way, he and his gang attacked me. There was shouting, rock throwing, clubs, swords, and all this was unexpected. (
Ep. ad Art
. IV. 3.2)

In February 56 he writes to his brother Quintus:

Pompey gave a speech [during a meeting of the Senate], or rather, he wanted to, for as he stood up, Clodius' gang started shouting, which lasted though all of Pompey's speech, hindering him not only with the shouting, but also with the curses and insults. As Pompey was concluding his speech, Clodius stood up; such a shout arose from us against himwe had to repay the favorthat he could neither think nor speak. . . . At almost four o'clock, as if upon a given signal, the Clodians began to spit on us. Our suffering flared out; they surged forward, to

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push us from our seats; we made an attack against them. Then the Clodians fled, and Clodius himself was thrown from the rostrum. ( Ep. ad Quintum Fratrem II.3.2)

Cicero immediately repaid Pompey for securing his recall by proposing to the Senate that Pompey be appointed dictator of the grain supply, for there was a shortage of grain in Rome. Pompey desperately needed something to restore his public image and popularity, which were being overshadowed by the violence and intimidation associated with Caesar's consulship, his desertion of Cicero, and Caesar's great victories in Gaul. Pompey nonetheless dissimulated, saying he would do whatever the state needed him to do. Clodius said that the shortage had been created by Cicero and Pompey so another extraordinary command could be created for Pompey. During one of the missions to find grain, a storm arose, causing the captains to refuse to sail; Pompey led his men onto the ships and ordered them to set sail despite the weather, saying, ''We have to sailwe do not have to live!" (Plutarch,
Pompey
L). He found more than enough grain, relieved the famine, and regained his popularity.

Crisis in the Triumvirate: Conference at Luca

Meanwhile, relations among the members of the triumvirate were not good. Pompey was angry with Crassus because he thought Crassus had set Clodius upon him. Cicero thought Pompey could rescue the dying republic and was trying to draw him away from Caesar and Crassus. In 56
B.C.
Caesar asked Pompey and Crassus to meet with him at Luca, a town in northern Italy, to discuss the situation.

At Luca the three worked things out to the advantage of them all. Crassus and Pompey were to be consuls in 55 and thereafter would receive proconsulships in Syria and Spain, while Caesar gained five more years of command in Gaul. Caesar also convinced Pompey to warn Cicero to be quiet; in his speeches, Cicero had been questioning the legitimacy of the laws Caesar had passed. Cicero therefore retired and wrote philosophical and rhetorical works or defended the triumvirate's friends.

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Pompey and Crassus had missed the deadline for filing their candidature for the consulship for 55, but that was no problem. They organized a band of armed men who attacked one of the leading candidates, Domitius, as he was walking home one night, and killed the slave who was carrying his torch. Cato, who was a candidate for praetor, was wounded while trying to defend Domitius. The attack caused the elections to be delayed, thus allowing Pompey and Crassus to submit their names for candidature. Since no one dared to stand for election against Pompey and Crassus, the two were elected consuls for 55 and took office immediately, since the year had already begun, thus rendering themselves immune to prosecution for bribery or the use of violence. When Crassus and Pompey were overseeing the elections for the praetorships, they learned that Cato was winning, but then Pompey heard thunder (a bad omen), so the two dissolved the assembly. Later, after distributing larger bribes than before, they held another election for the praetorships, and Vatinius, one of their friends, was elected praetor instead of Cato. As consuls, Pompey and Crassus passed the laws giving Caesar five more years in Gaul and themselves proconsulships in Spain and Syria respectively. At the end of the year Crassus left for Syria and the glory he hoped to win in a war against Parthia, but Pompey stayed in Rome and governed Spain through his legates, for he wanted to keep an eye on things at home.

More Trouble in the Triumvirate

Good relations among Crassus, Pompey, and Caesar did not last long. During the elections for the aedileships in 54
B.C.
, a riot broke out; a man standing near Pompey was killed and his blood stained Pompey's toga. Pompey changed into a clean toga and sent his bloody one home. His pregnant wife Julia, seeing the toga, mistakenly thought the blood on his toga was his own and fainted, then suffered a miscarriage and died. Julia had been a bond between Caesar and Pompey; even though Pompey had married her as part of the bargain of the triumvirate, he loved her, and her death broke a link between him and Caesar. She was so dear to the common people that they insisted that she be buried not on the family estate, but in the Campus Martius.

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The triumvirate suffered another blow the next year, when Crassus was killed in Parthia. The war had begun terribly: The tribune Ateius Capito vetoed Crassus' departure from Rome, and when his veto failed, he cursed Crassus and his army for beginning an unjust war (Rome and Parthia had a peace treaty). It was a bad omen for Crassus, but worse was to come. Once in Syria, for example, after winning a small battle, Crassus and his son Publius were leaving the Temple of Astarte (Ishtar), when the son tripped and fell and Crassus fell on top of hima very bad omen. When Crassus and his army were about to cross the Euphrates, he let slip another bad omen, by telling his troops that he would break down the bridge so that not one of them would return that way. He meant something very different from what his soldiers understood, but the damage to their morale had been done.

In fact, very few of them came back. On the plain of Carrhae (modem Harran, south of Urfa in Turkey), Crassus and his army were surrounded by the Parthian army, which had a neverending supply of arrows to shoot at the Roman army. Ordinarily, enemies using archers would have run out of arrows, allowing the Roman army to engage in their specialty, hand-to-hand combat, but the Parthians were supplied by a long train of camels, bearing baskets full of arrows. The Parthian archers were also trained to shoot while on horseback; thus when the Romans made a charge, the Parthians fled, but still rained arrows on Crassus and his hapless army. Eventually twenty thousand of Crassus' men were killed and ten thousand taken prisoner; Crassus and his son were among the dead.

The three members of the triumvirate had been on their best behavior out of fear that one would join the second against the third. Only Pompey and Caesar now remained, and they were no longer bound by their mutual affection for Julia.

Caesar in Gaul, Part Two

The younger Publius Crassus had been on Caesar's staff in Gaul before joining his father on the Parthian expedition and had even played a crucial role in the victory over Ariovistus. He should have stayed with Caesar, for Caesar's campaigns were as spectacular as

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