Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus were the sons of Sempronius
Gracchus
and Cornelia, the daughter of Scipio Africanus.
When Tiberius
was serving as quaestor in Spain, the
Numantines insisted on negotiating
with the son of the man
who had treated the Iberians better than
other Romans,
who often went back on their promises.
Plutarch
credited Tiberius Gracchus with saving the lives of
20,000 Roman
citizens in the agreement, though the senate
rejected it and sent
the commander Mancinus in chains back
to Numantia, which having
plundered the Roman camp
nonetheless gave back the financial ledgers
Tiberius requested.
In traveling through Etruria to Numantia,
Tiberius had noticed
how citizen farmers had been replaced by
foreign slaves.
So as tribune in 133 BC Tiberius Gracchus proposed a land
reform
bill that was supported by the consul Mucius Scaevola
and Publius
Crassus, the richest Roman.
The Licinian law of 367 BC, prohibiting
anyone from owning
more than 330 acres, was being ignored.
Though
those owning more than this were actually criminals,
Tiberius'
proposal would compensate them with no rent on
the public lands
they would now own in perpetuity up to this
legal limit, and sons
could retain another 165 acres each;
the rest would be distributed
to the poor by a commission
of himself, his brother, and his father-in-law.
Tiberius argued that the soldiers and their families were
homeless
and deserved to share in the increased Roman wealth.
Nonetheless
the wealthy landowners opposed the bill and
persuaded tribune
Marcus Octavius to veto it.
So Tiberius introduced a more severe
bill ordering the illegal
owners to vacate the land with no compensation,
and he offered to pay Octavius with his own money for the
extensive
lands he would lose; but Octavius refused,
and a meeting with
the senate was in vain.
Frustrated, Tiberius proposed that Octavius
be removed
from the tribuneship; the tribes voted unanimously
for this,
and Octavius was dragged away.
The land reform law was
passed, though the senate
resisted providing its expenses.
Going against tradition again, Tiberius was the first tribune
in
two centuries to be re-elected and proposed that the money
left to the Roman people in the will of Attalus III be used to
help citizens stock and cultivate these farms; he also reduced
the period of military service that had been from age 17 to 46,
gave the people the right to appeal jury verdicts, and added
to
the senators serving on juries an equal number of knights.
However,
as 31 rural tribes dominated the four urban tribes
and because
many of his supporters were busy with the
harvest, these proposals
of Tiberius were not going to pass.
In the turmoil rumors spread
that the rich had hired assassins
to kill Tiberius and that a
gesture he had made toward his head
recognizing this was interpreted
by his opponents as his asking for a crown.
Led by Scipio Nasica,
the senators and their followers,
armed with clubs, staves, and
broken benches, attacked
Tiberius Gracchus, killing him and 300
others
and throwing their bodies into the Tiber.
Some of the supporters
of Tiberius were banished,
and others including the rhetorician
Diophanes were executed.
This was the first major outbreak of
civil violence in Rome
since the expulsion of the kings nearly
four centuries before.
The senate attempted to conciliate the people by allowing
the distribution of the land to proceed and by appointing
Publius Crassus to the commission.
Threatened with impeachment, Nasica
was sent to Asia.
After three years the rebellion in Sicily involving
75,000
self-liberated slaves was brutally put down
by the Roman
legions of consul Rupilius.
Although Attalus III had bequeathed
the kingdom of
Pergamum to Rome, Aristonicus claimed the throne
and was
supported by a similar revolt of slaves calling themselves
citizens of the sun, who defeated and killed Crassus,
then consul
and the first chief priest to leave Italy.
The legions of consul
Marcus Perperna subdued them though,
and Aristonicus was executed
at Rome.
The eastern portion of this kingdom was assigned to client
kings to control the frontiers; Telmissus went to the Lycian
confederacy,
lands in Thrace to the province of Macedonia,
and by 129 BC the
rest had been organized as the
province of Asia in the Roman empire.
Scipio Aemilianus got the land commission replaced by the
consuls,
who did little, and supporting Italians' right to
citizenship,
he angered urban Romans and was found
mysteriously dead one morning.
Young Gaius Gracchus went to Sardinia as quaestor and
used his
oratorical skill touring cities
and pleading for clothing to relieve
the army.
In 125 BC consul Fulvius Flaccus proposed citizenship
for
most of the Italian allies, but the senate sent him off to
help
Massilia (Marseilles) fight the Gauls.
The bill was defeated,
and the revolt by the Latin colony
of Fregellae was crushed.
Gaius
Gracchus was elected tribune in 123 BC and proposed
numerous reforms
protecting citizens from banishment by
magistrates without trial,
dividing public lands among the poor,
supplying soldiers with
clothing at state expense, extending the
franchise to Italians,
founding colonies at Tarentum and Capua,
constructing roads, and
providing grain
for the poor at a low price.
Facing the people
when he spoke instead of the senate,
all these laws were passed,
and Gaius was allowed to select
the new jurors, now all from the
equestrian order.
These wealthy merchant "knights" also
benefited by Rome's
selling of tax collection privileges in the
provinces
to the highest capitalist bidders.
Gaius Gracchus successfully urged the election of Fannius as
consul and was re-elected as tribune without campaigning.
After
visiting Africa, where a new colony was being set up
on the site
of destroyed Carthage, Gaius returned to Rome
to find that Fannius
was expelling all those not born in Rome.
Gracchus denounced this
policy and promised support to
those who stayed, though he did
nothing when one of his
friends was dragged away to prison.
New
Gracchian reforms were undercut by demogogic
proposals of consul
Livius Drusus
that were never implemented.
According to Plutarch,
Gaius was denied a third tribuneship
when the election results
were falsified after he had the seats
for watching gladiators
at the forum torn down so that
magistrates would not sell them
to spectators.
The party of the consul Opimius planned to revoke the
Gracchi
laws, and both factions gathered at the capitol.
A servant of
Opimius, who made an insulting gesture, was
stabbed to death by
a crowd with long iron writing implements.
This gave Opimius the
excuse to have the senate declare an
emergency, as he asked the
senators to arm themselves and the
knights to bring two armed
servants with them the next morning.
Negotiation by envoy with
the party of Gaius and Fulvius on
the Aventine hill failed, and
Opimius advanced on them with
Cretan archers shooting.
Gaius fled
to the temple of Diana; but as rewards had been
offered for his
and Fulvius' heads, they both were killed.
Three thousand of their
supporters were also executed,
and their property was confiscated.
Opimius was the first consul to make himself dictator;
he was
prosecuted by the people's tribunal for putting people
to death
without a trial but acquitted, though later Opimius
was convicted
of bribery in the Jugurthine War.
The same year Gaius Gracchus died (121 BC), it was said
that
120,000 Gauls were killed by the Roman army near the
Rhone, and
the new province of Transalpine Gaul or
Narbonensis was added
to the empire.
According to Appian the knights on juries became
addicted to
bribes, and the rich bought the land allotments of
the poor or
found pretexts for taking them by force; land distribution
was
discontinued; rent was collected, and though some of it was
distributed to the poor, after many lawsuits
much unemployment
resulted.
In 114 BC after a Vestal virgin was killed by lightning,
the
Sibylline oracles were consulted, and a Greek and Gallic
couple
were sacrificed in the forum as had been done
in 225 BC, though
the senate finally
banned human sacrifice in 97 BC.
When Numidian king Micipsa died in 118 BC, his kingdom
was
divided between his two sons Hiempsal and Adherbal
and his nephew
Jugurtha, who had Hiempsal murdered.
Jugurtha then attacked and
defeated
Adherbal, who fled to Rome.
When Jugurtha had fought
with Scipio Aemilianus at Numantia
years before, Scipio had advised
him to cultivate the friendship
of Rome as a whole but warned
him not to rely
on his habit of bribing individual Romans.
However,
this habit continued, and a Roman commission
awarded what some
considered the better half of the kingdom
to Jugurtha, who then
besieged Adherbal at Cirta in 113 BC.
Roman envoys demanded both
sides put down their arms
and persuaded Adherbal to surrender;
but he was killed,
and Jugurtha also massacred the Italians there.
So Rome sent an army to Africa, and Jugurtha, asking for
an armistice,
was promised safe conduct to Rome,
where a rival to his throne
was assassinated by order
of Jugurtha's friend Bomilcar.
Questioning
of Jugurtha before the senate was interrupted
by those he had
bribed, and as Jugurtha left the city he said,
"Yonder is
a city put up for sale,
and its days are numbered if it finds
a buyer."1
The Roman army seems to have been corrupted too,
as Aulus was
defeated by Jugurtha and surrendered;
the senate rejected the
treaty and sent consul
Metellus Numidicus to Africa.
A law of
tribune Mamilius established a tribal court to
investigate corruption,
but according to Sallust the mob
became as arrogant as the aristocrats
by oppressively using hearsay evidence.
In Numidia Metellus disciplined
the army and then laid waste
the countryside, letting his soldiers
massacre the men
and take the rest as plunder.
Jugurtha surrendered,
giving up 200,000 pounds of silver
and all his elephants, but
then he changed his mind.
Metellus tried to get Bomilcar to betray
his king,
but Jugurtha discovered the plot and had Bomilcar executed.
Gaius Marius had become wealthy through tax collection and
commanded the cavalry for Metellus, who finally allowed the
commoner
to go to Rome and campaign for consul.
The new man was not only
elected consul, but the people took
over the senate's prerogative
by assigning Marius to Africa,
replacing Metellus.
Marius was
the first to change the Roman army from a militia
of property
owners to a professional army
as he enrolled numerous proletarians.
Eventually his army captured and destroyed Jugurtha's
southern
stronghold at Capsa; again the men were massacred,
and the rest
were sold into slavery,
the soldiers dividing the booty.
Negotiations
with neighboring king Bocchus of Mauretania
were carried on by
Marius' quaestor Cornelius Sulla.
Bocchus offered to stay in his
territory and stop Jugurtha
from crossing the boundary of the
Muluccha River;
but Sulla insisted he do something, and so Bocchus
handed Jugurtha over to the Romans,
who executed him in 104 BC.
Earlier Marius had been elected tribune with the help of his
patron Metellus and proposed a law that weakened the nobles
in
the courts; he strongly defended it in the senate, even going
so far as to call for the arrest of Metellus, who opposed it.
Marius served as a praetor and also put down bandits in Spain.
His Numidian triumph featured Jugurtha in chains and
3,007 pounds
of gold, 5,775 pounds of silver,
and 287,000 drachmas in coins.
The law prohibiting it was ignored, as he was re-elected consul
to face the threat in the north of 300,000 Teuton and the
Cimbri
warriors, who had already defeated the armies of
several Roman
consuls; 80,000 Romans had died
at the Arausio River in 105 BC.
When Marius asked for assistance from the king of Bithynia,
he learned that the majority of Bithynians had been seized
by
tax collectors and made slaves in Roman provinces.
The senate
decreed all citizens of allied states should be
liberated, and
Licinius Nerva freed 800 in Sicily.
The owners complained; when
he stopped freeing slaves,
they revolted.
As their numbers grew
and Athenion organized them into
an army, the rebels besieged
Lilybaeum.
The slave revolt lasted four years,
but eventually
20,000 of them were killed.
Just northwest of the Alps Marius'
proletarian army defeated
the Ambrones, killing and capturing
100,000.
Joining with the army of Catulus, the Roman armies also
routed
the Teutons, taking 60,000 prisoners and killing twice
that many.
By now Marius had been elected consul five years in a row.
When asked why he had illegally given citizenship to a
thousand
Camerinians, Marius replied that the din of war
had drowned the
law's voice.
To get elected consul a sixth time in 100 BC he allied
himself
with the violent tribune Saturninus
and distributed much
money to the voters.
Plutarch wrote that Marius considered lying
a sign of cleverness
and had no problem getting around a law of
Saturninus that
made senators take an oath, which honest men like
Metellus
refused to take and left Rome.
Failing to solve the conflict
between Saturninus and the
senators, Marius brought his troops
into the forum and forced
the aristocrats to capitulate on capital
hill from lack of water.
However, he was unable to prevent the
mob from stoning
them to death, thus angering both sides.
Saturninus,
who once had an election rival murdered,
also was killed by a
mob.
Choosing not to stand again for consul and upset over
the resolution allowing Metellus to return from exile,
Marius went
to visit Mithridates in Pontus,
hoping to be put in command in
the war against him;
but the position went to his hated adversary
and the current consul, Sulla.
In 97 BC the Roman proconsul Q. Mucius Scaevola
established
tribunals in Asia that corrected the wrongs of the
tax collectors
and made them reimburse the plaintiffs,
while those who had put
men to death were put on trial.
With this justice and by living
on his own money,
Scaevola did much to reduce Asian hatred toward
Rome.
The next year Asellio governed Sicily with similar wisdom,
as he rehabilitated the once prosperous island by relieving
the
oppressed, administering justice, promoting learning,
and helping
those in need.
In Asia Scaevola's work was carried on by his advisor
Rutilius Rufus, but in 92 BC this man was unjustly convicted
of
extortion by an equestrian jury that resented his
interference
in their tax collection business.
The tribune Livius Drusus attempted to confer voting citizenship
on the Italian allies, but a coalition of senators, equestrians,
and urban voters blocked this.
Marsian chief Poppaedius marched
toward Rome with 10,000
to demand these rights but was persuaded
to turn back
and let the senate deliberate.
When Drusus was assassinated
in 91 BC, the Italian action
committees organized for war, and
in Asculum Picenians
were provoked to massacre the resident Romans.
A confederation of the Marsi, Paeligni, Vestini, Picentes,
Marrucini,
Frentani, Samnites, Hirpini, and Lucanians
put together an army
of 100,000 to force their demands
on Rome or gain independence.
Rome called on Spaniards, Numidians, and even enrolled
ex-slaves
to raise fifteen legions with 150,000 men.
After several battles
the senate conferred Roman citizenship
on the Etruscans, Umbrians,
Latins, and all the Italians
not in revolt, though the ten new
tribes
voting last had little influence.
The rebellion in the
north ended with the surrender
of Asculum, and the south was eventually
worn down
by the army of Sulla in what has been called the Social
War.
In 89 BC suffering debtors got Asiello to apply a long
neglected
law that prohibited usury, but the creditors had him
murdered
while he was performing a religious sacrifice.
The next year tribune
Sulpicius proposed distributing the
Italians into the old 35 tribes
including ex-slaves,
unseating senators with debts greater than
2,000 denarii,
and transferring command in Asia from Sulla to
Marius;
but the senate suspended business.
So Sulpicius formed
a body-guard of 600 propertied citizens
he called his "anti-senate,"
which attacked the consuls and
killed one of their sons, a mob
chasing Sulla to the
house of Marius, who allowed him to escape.
In exchange for protection by Marius the consuls got Sulpicius'
proposals passed into law; but Sulla, after killing staff officers
who favored Marius and mistreating two praetors
sent to stop him,
marched his six legions into Rome
"to deliver her from her
tyrants."2
So Marius had some of Sulla's friends put to death;
but his offer of freedom failing to get more than
three slaves to join him, Marius fled to Libya.
After setting fire to houses of those resisting,
Sulla restored order by punishing looters.
The next day an assembly reinstituted
the ancient traditions
that no proposal could be brought before
the people
until it was approved by the senate and that voting
should be
by centuries not by tribes; tribune powers were curtailed,
and 300 aristocrats were enrolled in the senate.
Rewards were
offered for the death of Marius, Sulpicius,
and ten others; Sulpicius
was soon caught and killed,
but the adventures of Marius eventually
brought him back to Rome.
Sulla then went off to Asia to fight
Mithridates,
but the other consul Pompeius Rufus was murdered
by the
soldiers of Pompeius Strabo, whom he was sent to replace.
Cinna succeeded Sulla as consul promising him loyalty,
but he
supported Marius' idea of distributing the new citizens
into the
old tribes; the other consul
Octavius favored the old citizens.
Pontus king Mithridates VI (r. 120-63 BC) had occupied
Galatia
and Cappadocia in 104 BC, and in 88 BC he took
over Bithynia and
invaded the Roman province of Asia,
establishing himself in Pergamum.
Greatly reduced tax revenues and Mithridates' order that
killed
as many as 80,000 Italians
made this war a priority in Rome.
His
son Ariarathes had invaded Thrace and Macedonia,
while the fleet
of his general Archelaus had subjugated the
Cyclades (except Rhodes),
occupied Euboea, and even
took over Athens with the tyrant Aristion.
Sulla's army besieged Athens and Piraeus, stole treasures
from
temples at Olympia, Epidaurus, and Delphi,
stormed the city, and
massacred most of the starving people.
The priests at Delphi criticized
these new generals for rising
by violence rather than merit and
for needing armies to fight
against each other instead of against
public enemies,
requiring money for their soldiers, putting up
their country
for sale, and thus obeying the worst people.
Though
greatly outnumbered, Sulla's army won victories
over Archelaus
at Chaeronea and Orchomenus
and in three years killed 160,000
men.
Archelaus and Mithridates agreed to give up Asia and
Paphlagonia,
restore Bithynia to Nicomedes and Cappadocia
to Ariobarzanes,
pay 2,000 talents, and provide
seventy bronze-armored ships and
500 archers.
Sulla then imposed an indemnity of 20,000 talents
on Asia.
Landing in Etruria, Marius offered freedom to slaves and raised
an army; Cinna, joining him and appointing him proconsul,
had
also gathered disaffected troops from Latium and Campania.
The
forces of Marius took over the port of Ostia
and then the Janiculan
hill near Rome.
A mob dragged Octavius from a public platform
in the forum and murdered him.
The senate invited Cinna and Marius
into the city,
asking them to avoid bloodshed.
Marius refused
to enter the gate until
the people repealed his banishment.
Then
after his nod or mere silence his bodyguard of ex-slaves
killed
the enemies of Marius and committed other atrocities
until Cinna
and Sertorius used their troops
to massacre these Bardyiae bodyguards.
News that Sulla had defeated Mithridates and was returning
with his army led Cinna and Marius to declare themselves
consuls
for 86 BC, but Marius soon died of illness.
Cinna repealed the
laws of Sulla, as censors registered the
new citizens; debts were
reduced to a quarter
of what
they were, and money and exchange
rates were regulated.
Cinna reappointed himself consul two more
times
and selected Carbo as his colleague.
Flaccus was sent to
Asia against Mithridates,
but Sulla refused to cooperate with
him.
Flaccus was so hated by his army that his legate Fimbria
killed
and replaced him; but surrounded by Sulla's army, Fimbria
committed suicide after most of his soldiers deserted to Sulla.
Cinna got Sulla declared a public enemy
but was killed by troops
mutinying at Ancona.
Crossing to Brundisium in 1200 ships, Sulla's forces
swept across Italy, chasing consul Norbanus
to Capua after killing 7,000.
The sixteen cohorts of Sulla's commander Marcus Lucullus
defeated
fifty cohorts, killing 18,000.
The morale of Sulla's troops proved
far superior to the other
Romans in this civil war, as thousands
of them deserted
to his side, consul Cornelius Scipio losing his
entire army.
At Signia Sulla defeated Marius, son of Marius,
killing
20,000 and taking 8,000 prisoners.
Sulla's generals Pompey, Crassus,
Metellus, and Servilius
were also victorious; young Pompey, having
raised three
legions on his own initiative, was named Great by
Sulla.
Carbo's army of 70,000 was defeated by Sulla,
as young
Marius committed suicide at Praeneste
after ordering the murder
of the
distinguished jurist Mucius Scaevola.
Sulla started by
giving individual trials before execution
but then ordered 12,000
herded together and slaughtered;
he made certain that all his
Samnite enemies were killed.
Pompey defeated and killed Carbo
in Sicily.
At Antennae Sulla promised 3,000 men terms;
but after
they fought on his side, he had the survivors
and a total of 6,000
massacred in the circus at Rome.
50,000 had been killed in battles
around Rome,
but after three years of civil war
Sulla entered
the imperial capital again.
Sulla published lists of his enemies, who were to be killed
for rewards of two talents, confiscated their properties,
and
executed anyone caught helping those so proscribed;
their sons
were prohibited from holding offices.
Ninety senators, 15 consuls,
and 2600 knights
were proscribed and killed or fled.
From their
slaves Sulla organized a bodyguard
of 10,000 men he emancipated.
Sulla proclaimed himself dictator with power over
life and death,
property, colonies, and even kingdoms,
decreeing immunity for
all his past actions.
He appointed an Alexander king in Alexandria,
but he was so offensive that the
Alexandrians killed him after
19 days.
Confiscated properties and colonies provided land
for about 120,000 discharged soldiers.
Strict requirements were made
for holding offices,
and Ofella was executed for standing for
the consulship
without having been quaestor and praetor.
Sulla's
laws giving the senate more power
and the tribunes little were
reinstituted,
and all parts of the empire were required to pay
tribute.
After re-establishing this aristocratic republic,
Sulla
gave up his dictatorship and even his bodyguard,
retiring to the
country, where he died of illness
a year later in 78 BC,
the year
Marcus Lepidus was elected consul.
As consul Lepidus proposed restoring the power of the
tribunes, the sale of cheap grain, and giving Italians their
estates back, though he had prospered more than any
from buying this property
at low prices.
When evicted landowners in Faesulae expelled Sulla's
colonists, the senate sent Lepidus to quell the revolt;
but he
took the side of the rebels, while his friend
Junius Brutus organized
insurrection in northern Italy.
After Lepidus asked to run again
for consul and marched
forces toward Rome, the senate gave commands
to
Catulus and Pompey, who were supported by Sulla's veterans.
Brutus surrendered to Pompey in the north,
and Catulus defeated
Lepidus at the Milvian bridge in Rome.
Servilius attacked the
pirates in Lycia, Pamphylia,
and Cilicia for three years, causing
them to scatter
around the Mediterranean.
Sulla had sent Metellus Pius to fight Sertorius and the
rebelling
Lusitanians in Spain, and Rome missed the
opportunity to end this
war by
reinstating Sertorius after Sulla's death.
Using guerrilla
tactics, Sertorius was rarely defeated.
When 20,000 fugitives
from the revolt of Lepidus
led by Perperna joined Sertorius and
formed an opposition
senate, the Roman senate gave
young Pompey
proconsular power there.
Sertorius educated his Iberian hostages,
whom he later killed,
and formed an alliance with Mithridates
of Pontus.
Pompey asked for more money and threatened to bring
his army back to Italy if he did not get it.
Rome sent the funds
and passed a law pardoning
those involved in Lepidus' revolt.
Envying his victories he could not equal,
Perperna murdered Sertorius
to get command in 72 BC;
but it was not long before Pompey
defeated
and killed Perperna.
Pompey's generous settlement and pardons
helped to restore
prosperity to Spain, and by destroying Sertorius'
correspondence he prevented prosecutions in Rome.
In 74 BC the senate established a garrison at Cyrene,
making
it an official Roman province.
Nicomedes IV bequeathed his kingdom
of Bithynia to Rome,
and Mithridates, afraid of losing control
of the Black Sea
and to help his Spanish allies, occupied Bithynia,
invaded Asia again, and destroyed a Roman fleet
of a hundred ships
at Chalcedon.
His son-in-law, Armenian king Tigranes, invaded
Cappadocia
and was said to have removed 300,000 people to Armenia.
Lucius Lucullus got himself appointed to command in Asia
and Cilicia
and was able to blockade and starve
300,000 troops of Mithridates
besieging Cyzicus;
then he defeated a Pontic naval squadron off
Lemnos.
Lucullus marched his army through Galatia, and after two
tough winters and a bloody battle at Cabira
he occupied Pontus
with troops.
In Asia he found that Roman money-lending at high
interest
had driven their war debts up to a staggering 120,000
talents;
Lucullus reduced the obligation to 40,000
and arranged
for it all to be paid within four years,
saving the Asians from
bankruptcy
but causing resentment among equestrian capitalists.
In 73 BC the Thracian Spartacus and two Celts led a slave
revolt
that started with 74 gladiators in their barracks at Capua
and
spread through Campania.
A division of 3,000 soldiers failed
to
trap them on Mount Vesuvius.
The numbers and supplies of the robber
band increased,
as soldiers of two legions from Rome refused to
fight
and went home or were defeated.
The bandits took over and
plundered the south of Italy,
growing to 70,000.
Since all captured
slaves were crucified, the insurgents also
killed their prisoners
or made them kill each other
in mock gladiatorial contests.
The
next year armies of both consuls and Gaius Cassius,
governor of
Cisalpine Gaul, all failed to subdue
the armed gangs, as the liberated
Celts ravaged the south,
and Spartacus led his men north to the
Apennines.
The praetor Crassus was appointed commander,
but his
first division also threw away their arms and fled.
So he took
these 500 men and decimated their squads
by executing one out
of ten so that
they would fear him more than the enemy.
Spartacus led his robber army to Rhegium to find passage
with
pirates, who now held Syracuse; but the Cilician pirates
took
his payment and sailed away.
Crassus had a ditch dug and a wall
built for 35 miles from
sea to sea, but Spartacus and most of
his men broke through
on a winter night and returned to Lucania.
Crassus called in the army of Lucullus from Macedonia
and Pompey's
from Spain, though he regretted it
after his army surrounded 12,300
Celts,
who all fought to the death.
Spartacus won a victory;
but
his men refused to retreat and were defeated.
Pompey's army arrived
to hunt down the remaining rebels,
and 6,000 were crucified along
the road from Capua to Rome.
This last large slave revolt perhaps
taught the Romans
to treat their slaves better
and the slaves
the futility of armed insurrection.
Crassus had won the victory
but not without the help of Pompey.
Both stood for consul, while neither disbanded his army
as the
law required.
Pompey was also too young and had not been
quaestor
or praetor, but he promised
to restore the power of the tribunes.
Both were elected for 70 BC, and pressured by the people
and direful
prophecies if they did not,
Crassus and Pompey agreed to dismiss
their armies.
Pompey got juries of senators to include equestrians
and the next wealthiest class of tribuni aerarii after
Cicero's successful prosecution
of Sicily governor Verres
for corruption exposed the biased judicial
system.
The senate was purged of many Sulla nominees as the
first
censors appointed in sixteen years removed 64 senators.
Pompey
kept his promise and restored the tribunes' powers
to veto, initiate
legislation, and run for higher offices.
The next year without authorization by the senate Lucullus
led 16,000 soldiers across the Euphrates into Armenia,
where its
powerful king Tigranes commented that
they were too many to be
ambassadors
and too few to be an army.
Nonetheless his 250,000
infantry and 50,000 horse
were defeated by Lucullus at Tigranocerta.
The weary army of Lucullus refused to chase
Mithridates to his
capital at Artaxata.
Fugitives from the wars and its consequent poverty
had greatly
increased the numbers of pirates,
who with a thousand ships had
captured 400 cities,
destroyed the harbor at Delos, ransacked
the coasts of Italy,
and even cut off Rome's grain supply.
Hungry
Romans insisted Pompey be appointed to command
a great naval force;
the senate balked at giving him this power;
but attacked by a
mob, they agreed.
In 67 BC Pompey with an army of 125,000 under
24 commanders using 500 ships cleared the pirates
out of the two
halves of the Mediterranean in three months.
About 10,000 pirates
were killed in battles,
and Pompey settled more than 20,000 prisoners
in thinly populated areas.
The bandits' bases on Crete were subdued
by forces
under Metellus Creticus,
and this island became a Roman
province.
Lucullus was recalled by the senate and replaced by
Pompey,
whose army completed the defeat of the Pontic forces.
Mithridates escaped, but his attempt to conscript more
soldiers
and his killing of relatives caused a rebellion
led by his son
Pharnaces.
The king of Pontus eventually committed suicide,
and
Pharnaces was given the kingdom of Bosphorus as an ally.
In Rome
Cotta was convicted of plundering Heraclea
for his own enrichment
during the Mithridatic war;
but his only punishment was loss of
senatorial rank,
though he returned some of the spoils to the
state treasury.
Gaius Julius Caesar, born in 100 BC was a nephew of Marius,
was proud that his family descended from the Roman king
Ancus
Marcius, and claimed that his Julian ancestors
could be traced
through Aeneas to the goddess Venus.
At age 16 he married Cornelia,
daughter of four-time consul Cinna.
Sulla took away Caesar's priesthood,
her dowry,
and his inheritance when he refused to divorce her.
Caesar had to hide from Sulla's secret police
until Vestal virgins
interceded for him.
When Caesar was sent to raise a fleet in Bithynia,
it was widely believed that he had a homosexual affair
with King
Nicomedes IV.
Failing to win a prosecution of extortion against
Cornelius Dolabella, Caesar went to Rhodes to study
rhetoric with
its greatest current teacher Apollonius Molo.
At sea he was captured
by pirates, and while waiting for
the ransom of fifty talents,
he joked that he would later
capture and crucify them, which he
did.
Like Pompey, Caesar raised his own forces, which he used
to win back cities in Asia during the Mithridatic war.
In 65 BC Julius Caesar used his aedileship to gain popularity
by providing shows of wild-beast hunts and plays;
he tried to
get himself elected governor of Egypt,
but this was thwarted by
the new man Cicero.
Caesar reacted
by replacing the public monuments to
Marius' victories that Sulla
had destroyed.
Crassus was censor and got Calpurnius Piso appointed
governor of Spain, but he ruled so badly that a
Spaniard soon
murdered him.
Crassus and Caesar were suspected of trying to take
over
the government with two consuls, who were convicted
of bribery
and corruption.
Cicero also
stopped their attempt to establish a commission
to control the
land that Pompey's veterans
would soon be wanting.
Cicero
then was elected consul over Catiline,
the candidate supported
by Crassus.
Caesar was elected pontifex maximus (chief priest)
and
praetor by borrowing money to win over voters.
Caesar divorced
Pompeia, because she was merely
suspected of adultery with Clodius
in a sacrilegious scandal;
but by not charging Clodius with adultery
Caesar gained him as an ally.
Pompey attempted to order the chaos of the disintegrating
Seleucid empire, where Nabataeans
had taken over Damascus.
John Hyrcanus and Aristobulus asked Pompey
to settle their
dispute over the throne of Israel.
He chose the
elder Hyrcanus, but the followers of Aristobulus
refused to give
up Jerusalem
until Pompey besieged it for three months.
Hyrcanus
had to settle for being high priest and not king,
and Seleucid
independence ended
as Syria became a Roman province.
Bithynia
and Pontus were combined into a province,
and the province of
Cilicia was expanded.
This eastern portion of the empire increased
annual Roman
tax revenues from 50 to 85 million denarii.
Further east Pompey's promise to Parthian king Phraates III
to
return his lost territory for an alliance against Armenia's
Tigranes
was broken when he divided
the controversial land between the
two.
Pompey's army had captured a thousand fortified places,
900
cities, and 800 pirate ships, founding 39 cities;
so he distributed
16,000 talents,
rewarding each soldier with 1500 drachmas.
Catiline had killed men on Sulla's lists and even murdered
his own son because of his objection
to a marriage Catiline desired.
He ran for consul promising to cancel debts but lost.
Rumors of
his conspiracy to murder the consuls and take over
the government
had helped to get
Cicero elected
consul for 63 BC.
The danger of the conspiracy increased and even
threatened
the life of Cicero,
who got the senate to declare an emergency
and found the evidence
to arrest several conspirators in Rome,
as Catiline went north
to join the uprising in Etruria led by
Gaius Manlius, who assumed
the fasces of military command.
The senate declared Catiline
and Manlius public enemies
but offered pardon to rebels who laid
down their arms.
Cicero asked
for the death penalty for the arrested
conspirators, but Caesar
argued for confiscation of their
property and imprisonment so
that
they could be given a regular trial.
Cato argued that although
arson and massacre were only
planned and not committed,
once a
city is captured it is too late.
Caesar attempted to block the
proceedings
until some knights threatened to kill him.
By decree
of the senate the five conspirators were executed
that night by
Cicero's authority, causing many of the 20,000
followers to give
up the revolution.
The remainder of the forces led by Manlius
and Catiline
were defeated and killed attempting
to flee Italy
over the Apennines.
Marcus Porcius Cato, called the younger to distinguish him
from his famous great grandfather, had been so scrupulous
and
careful with finances as quaestor that he gained a
reputation
for unshakeable honesty.
Concerned that Metellus Nepos was standing
for tribune,
Cato ran against him; both were elected.
Metellus
and the praetor Caesar proposed such inflammatory
bills that the
senate suspended them but revoked their decree
after Caesar dissuaded
a crowd that gathered at his house
from using violence.
Cato tried
to persuade Metellus not to allow Pompey to
return with his army
and declared that while he lived,
Pompey would never come armed
into Rome.
In response to the needs of the poor, the assembly
passed
a bill Cato proposed to distribute grain at low prices.
Landing at Brundisium, Pompey dismissed his army,
and in Rome
he was given the largest triumph so far
that included among many
other things 75,100,000 drachmas
in silver coins, carriages with
gold, 324 prominent hostages,
depictions of kings conquered, and
countless wagons of arms.
Nonetheless influenced by Cato and Lucullus,
the senate delayed ratifying his eastern arrangements.
When Pompey
tried to ally himself with Cato by himself
and his son marrying
his nieces,
Cato responded that he was not assailable
by the women's
chamber.
The two women were disappointed until they saw voters
being bribed during an election in Pompey's own garden.
Cato then
prevented the assembly from passing
Pompey's land law for his
soldiers.
In debt 25 million sesterces, Caesar was only allowed
to leave
for the farther Spain, where he had been assigned
as propraetor,
thanks to Crassus standing guarantee
for most of it with 830 talents.
There Caesar's forces conquered the Spanish tribes
in order to
make them pay tribute to Rome.
Thus Caesar became rich, while
his soldiers also
prospered at the expense of the natives.
Waiting
outside the city for his triumph,
Caesar asked to use friends
to campaign for consul,
but Cato would not let him; so Caesar
gave up the
triumph and entered the city to campaign himself.
He joined his candidacy to that of Lucceius,
who had more money
to bribe voters.
Cato, afraid of Caesar with a pliant colleague,
even urged bribing voters on behalf of Bibulus
in order to preserve
the constitution.
Caesar and Bibulus were elected in 60 BC,
but
the senate snubbed Caesar by assigning the consuls
to protect
the forests and pastures from brigands.
So Caesar formed a political alliance with Pompey and Crassus.
Pompey married Caesar's daughter Julia even though
she was engaged
to Caepio, whom Pompey mollified by
promising his own daughter,
while Caesar married Calpurnia,
daughter of Lucius Piso.
Caesar's
first act was to order a daily record to be published
of the proceedings
in the senate and assembly.
To get the land act for Pompey's veterans
passed,
the forum was cleared of its opponents, as the other consul
Bibulus, though accompanied by Lucullus and Cato,
was attacked
by a crowd, which broke the fasces
of the lictors and wounded
two escorting tribunes.
Bibulus did not appear in public for the
remaining eight months
of his consulship, although he issued proclamations
that Caesar's legislation was illegal.
The eastern settlements were ratified, and Caesar and
Pompey received large bribes for giving privileges
to dependent kings, while Caesar got a law passed
against extortion in the provinces.
They received 6,000 talents to recognize Ptolemy XI Auletes,
but
the next year he was driven out by Egyptians
refusing to pay high
taxes imposed to
pay his debt to Caesar and Pompey.
Caesar won
popularity with the equestrians by
getting one-third of the debts
the tax collectors
owed the treasury released.
Consuls for the
next year were to be Lucius Piso
and Pompey's man Gabinius.
Caesar
got himself appointed governor with four legions
in both Gauls
and Illyria for an unprecedented five years.
Caesar found the Helvetii and the Belgae the "bravest"
of the Gauls, because they were nearer the Germans,
who were continually
at war.
Most of the Celtic Gauls were poor and oppressed
by the
knights, who fought the wars, and by the Druids,
who were the
judges and priests.
The Druids believed in reincarnation
as an
incentive to bravery and justice.
They practiced human sacrifice
but preferred
to use capital punishment of criminals if possible.
The Gauls grew crops, but the Germans
ate mostly meat, cheese,
and milk.
Afraid of an invasion by the German Suebi,
the Helvetii
asked permission to migrate through Gaul
to the Atlantic coast,
but Caesar told them
if they used force to do so, the Romans would
stop them.
Their land pillaged by the Helvetii,
the Aedui and
Allobroges asked Rome for help.
Caesar, gathering his four legions
and raising two more,
went to avenge the Roman defeat
by the Tigurini
fifty years before.
The Helvetii lost the battle, and 110,000
were
forced to return to their homes in Switzerland.
Many Gauls joined with Aeduan leader Divitiacus in asking
Caesar's
aid against the invading German leader Ariovistus.
Caesar had
previously authored a senate resolution of
friendship with Ariovistus
and tried to negotiate, asking him
to stop migrations across the
Rhine,
return the Aeduan hostages, and not make war.
The German
Suebi claimed as much right to conquer Gaul
by force as the Romans
had and refused to yield
until most of them were killed by Romans.
Caesar's army occupied Gaul in 58 BC, and the next year
they raised
two more legions and in the north defeated the
Belgae and left
the Nervii with only three out of
600 councilors and 500 soldiers
out of 60,000.
The Atuatuci, who promised to surrender but did
not,
had 53,000 sold into slavery.
Near the Atlantic coast Publius
Crassus, son of the consul,
with one legion defeated the Veneti,
where the next year
Caesar had all their councilors killed and
the people sold
as slaves to teach them to respect ambassadors.
The initial conquest of Gaul was completed when
Publius Crassus
occupied Aquitanian territory to the Pyrenees.
While Cato prophetically warned the senate of dangers,
Lucullus
retired to a life of pleasure,
and Pompey was absorbed by his
young wife.
In 58 BC the tribune Clodius acting for Caesar became
popular by passing a law distributing free grain,
forced Cicero
into exile with a law condemning anyone
who killed a citizen without
a trial,
and got Cato sent to Cypress, where the younger Ptolemy
was deposed and committed suicide;
Cypress was added to the province
of Cilicia,
and Cato shipped 7,000 talents to Rome.
Pompey decided
to recall Cicero and sent a
large force
led by Annius Milo with Cicero's brother into the
forum
in order to overcome Clodius.
Cicero
returned and reconciled Pompey and the senate,
getting Pompey
appointed the administrator of all ports
and trading centers for
the distribution of food,
giving him authority over sea and land.
In 56 BC Pompey, Marcus Crassus, and about 120 senators
met
with Caesar at Luca on the border of Cisalpine Gaul.
They agreed
Pompey and Crassus would stand for the
consulship and would be
supported
by votes of Caesar's soldiers.
Cato and most of the
senate supported Lucius Domitius
in a struggle not merely for
office but for their liberty,
which became apparent when Pompey's
party sent
armed men to prevent Domitius from entering the forum,
killing his torchbearer and causing the rest to flee.
Pompey and
Crassus were elected, and the tribune
Trebonius got Spain and
Africa assigned to Pompey,
Syria to Crassus,and Caesar's governorship
of Gaul
confirmed for five more years.
Cato's speech opposing
this was curtailed by force,
and though many were wounded as they
were driven out
of the forum, Cato persuaded them
not to throw
down Pompey's statues.
Instead he warned Pompey about Caesar,
and the next year
as praetor Cato, concerned that gifts had corrupted
politics,
proposed that candidates be required to give an
accounting of their election procedures;
but the people who benefited from
these bribes stoned him.
When two German tribes crossed the Rhine,
Caesar used a truce
violation to arrest their leaders
and then massacred all of them.
His soldiers built a bridge over the Rhine to show that
he could
invade them if necessary.
Then he made two incursions across the
channel to Britain,
where according to his book Gallic War
he imposed tribute to Rome,
though scholars doubt it was collected.
Meanwhile Pompey entertained the Romans with wild
animal fights
with as many as 500 lions being killed.
Ptolemy XI promised to
pay Rome 10,000 talents to
restore his kingship in Egypt; but
the people and the
senate perturbed by his bribery refused to
authorize this.
Nonetheless in 55 BC Pompey sent Syrian governor
Gabinius to occupy Egypt with his army,
and the Roman banker Caius
Rabirius became
Ptolemy's finance minister as well as his creditor.
Gabinius was later charged with this war violation,
but using
his money to bribe jurors he was acquitted.
However, he was convicted
of taking the money
from Ptolemy and forced to return it to Rome
as a fine.
Marcus Crassus, known for his avarice, had increased his
worth
from 300 to 7,100 talents using many slaves not only
in silver
mines and laboring on the land but as secretaries,
silversmiths,
and stewards he helped educate himself.
After his year as consul,
Crassus was appointed governor
of Syria; but the senate did not
authorize a war with
Parthia, though Caesar encouraged them in
this.
As Crassus was leaving Rome, the tribune Ateius tried to
stop him from going to violate their treaties of friendship;
but
the crowd was awed by Pompey, and the other
tribunes would not
let Ateius arrest Crassus;
dreadful curses were called down as
he departed.
Putting to sea in the stormy season, Crassus lost
many ships.
In 53 BC the ambitious Crassus crossed the Euphrates
and invaded Parthia, where he foolishly allowed
his army to be
led into the desert.
Expected help from Armenia's Artavasdes could
not come,
because Parthia's Orodes had invaded that country.
The
Roman army was defeated, and Crassus trying to
negotiate was captured
and killed by Surena's Parthian forces.
The Romans lost about
20,000 killed and 10,000 prisoners,
as about 10,000 returned.
The threat of a counter-attack was removed when the
Parthian king,
afraid of a revolt, had Surena put to death.
After Julia died in childbirth, and the child died too,
the
connection between Pompey and Caesar lessened.
Pompey married
Cornelia, daughter of the aristocratic
Metellus Scipio, whom he
selected as fellow consul.
In Gaul Eburones king Ambiorix united
enough tribes to
destroy a Roman detachment of one and half legions
near
Liége, though Caesar was able to relieve Cicero's
brother
and put down insurgencies one at a time.
He requested
aid from Pompey, who sent one
of his legions from Spain to Gaul.
That winter Caesar attacked the Nervii
with four legions and ravaged
their country.
He gained more recruits from the Italian side of
the Alps
to meet a widespread revolt led by
Arvernian king Vercingetorix
in 52 BC.
After Caesar's army showed it could be defeated,
even
the Aedui joined the Gauls' fight for their independence.
So Caesar
hired German mercenaries from beyond
the Rhine whom he gave better
horses.
Even though he was attacked with 250,000 infantry and
8,000 horse while he was besieging Vercingetorix at Alesia,
this
added cavalry helped achieve victory for the Romans.
Vercingetorix
surrendered, and Caesar doubled his
soldiers' pay and gave every
one of his men a Gallic slave.
Caesar then was able to subdue all of Gaul by combining
his famous clemency with the power of his legions, though
to make an example of those who bore arms against him
at Uxellodunum he
had their hands cut off.
Troops were garrisoned in every part
of Gaul,
and Caesar used his recently acquired wealth
(which he
failed to mention in his war commentary)
to win over most of the
senate by offering them loans
with little or no interest, while
those in the provinces were
provided with public works at his
or the government's expense.
In eight years Caesar's army had
conquered all of Gaul,
taking 800 cities, subduing 300 nations,
fighting battles
with three million men, killing one million and
capturing
another million in Gaul, and exacting
an annual tribute of eight million denarii.
After Clodius was killed in an attack on Milo, the senate-house
and other buildings in the forum were burned down.
The senate
declared an emergency and with Cato's support
made Pompey sole
consul to restore order;
Pompey even punished Milo along with
others,
though after marrying Cornelia he summoned the jurors
in her father's case to his house.
After a law was passed prohibiting
speeches
praising anyone on trial, Pompey went to court
to praise
Plancus; Cato covered his ears because
of the illegality and was
removed from the jury,
though Plancus was condemned.
Such behavior
decreased Pompey's popularity,
but he was voted his provinces
for four more years
with a thousand talents per year for military
expenses.
Caesar provided funds to rebuild the forum.
Cato stood for consul but was defeated.
After Caesar had broken
a truce and his army killed
300,000 Germans, Cato had suggested
that Caesar
be turned over to them to expiate the wrong.
Cato
warned Romans that Caesar was more to be feared
than the Britons
and Gauls.
After Caesar's opponents Aemilius Paullus and
Claudius
Marcellus were elected consuls
and Gaius Curio tribune, Caesar
bought the neutrality of Paulus
for 1500 talents and the friendship
of the heavily indebted
and skilled speaker Curio for even more.
Curio then insisted that Pompey along with Caesar
also give up
his province and lay down his arms.
Pompey asked Caesar to return
the legion and one of
his own for the Parthian war, and Caesar
sent them back
after rewarding the men with 250 drachmas each;
but the war never occurred, and the legions
went to winter quarters
at Capua,
while Caesar moved closer by going to Ravenna.
In 50 BC Curio again proposed that Pompey give up
his command
of Spain and Italy at the same time
as Caesar's expired, and the
senate voted 370 to 22
in favor of this disarmament.
However,
hearing a false rumor that Caesar had
moved four legions to Placentia,
consul Gaius Marcellus
and the two consuls elected for the next
year
persuaded Pompey to mobilize his forces.
Yet men were reluctant
to enlist as people demanded a
settlement; tribune Mark Antony
read aloud a letter brought
by Curio from Caesar proposing he
and Pompey both give up
their provinces, disband their armies,
and give an account to
the people's judgment; Cicero also suggested
a compromise;
but the consul Lentulus refused to allow
the senate
to vote on these.
Caesar was determined to invade Italy if force
were used
against the tribunes, who had vetoed the senate's decree
that he disband his forces, for he feared Cato's promise
to impeach
him if he disbanded his army.
In January 49 BC the senate declared an emergency,
putting
Rome under the consuls and Pompey as proconsul,
declaring Caesar
a public enemy, and forcing tribunes Antony
and Quintus Cassius
to leave the senate and flee the city.
Three days later Caesar
crossed the bordering stream
of the Rubicon and marched with only
5,000 infantry
and 300 cavalry toward Rome.
Cato advised the senate
to give all power to Pompey,
arguing that the one who can raise
up great evils
can best allay them.
The senators were then appointed
to various commands,
Cato going to Sicily.
Pompey declared a state
of civil war and ordered
all the senators to follow him in leaving
the city;
gathering five legions at Capua, he headed toward Brundisium.
Caesar occupied Umbria, Picenum, and Tuscany,
captured and released
his senate-appointed replacement
Domitius Ahenobarbus at Corfinium
and accepted
his soldiers over to his side.
Pompey, who once said
that he could stamp his foot,
and all Italy would rise to fight
for him, did not find it so easy.
Caesar's small army arrived
at Brundisium,
just as Pompey and his supporters were departing.
Crossing to Dyrrhachium, Pompey organized
his navy of 500 ships.
The senate met there and passed Cato's decree
that no Roman should
be killed except in battle,
and no city subject to Rome should
be plundered.
Then Caesar marched to Rome and entered the city
without violence
except for his threat to the tribune
Lucius Metellus, who at first
refused
to turn over the treasury to him.
Caesar told Metellus
that war had no use for free speech
but that he could make speeches
after they laid down their weapons.
A fund from an ancient Gallic
invasion remained with a
curse on anyone using it for anything
but a Gallic war;
having subjugated all of Gaul,
Caesar felt justified
in taking it.
The senate and consuls refusing to make him dictator,
Caesar appointed praetor Aemilius Lepidus prefect
and then led
six legions to Spain after putting Massilia
under siege along
the way.
He managed to gain a capitulation without a major battle
at Ilerda, asking only that Pompey's army be disbanded,
though
the soldiers were free to join him.
On his return to Italy the
Massilians surrendered,
and Caesar left a garrison of two legions
there.
A food crisis in Rome was averted when Caesar
sent Quintus
Valerius to take Sardinia,
while Curio drove Cato out of Sicily.
In Africa Curio and two of Caesar's legions
were destroyed by
Juba's Numidians.
In Illyria Pompey's navy destroyed the forty
ships
of Caesar's Publius Dolabella and trapped
Antony's two legions;
most were taken to join Pompey's
forces in Macedonia, while some
escaped to Italy.
Hearing of a mutiny at Placentia by his soldiers, who were
demanding the five minae he had promised them,
Caesar won
them back with a stern speech and then
executed twelve chosen
by lot from the 120 leaders.
Back in Rome, Lepidus got the assembly
to appoint Caesar
dictator, which office he used to order grain
distributed to the
starving people, exiles recalled (except Milo),
the civil rights
restored for the children of those persecuted
by Sulla,
and debtors relieved from some of the interest burdening
them.
Hoarding of coins was prohibited, and creditors were
required to accept property as payment at
pre-war prices determined by
a commission.
Then Caesar conducted the consular election in which
he was elected, allowing him to resign
the dictatorship after
eleven days.
Caesar found enough ships to bring part of his army over
to
Epirus, where he offered to make peace with Pompey
by dismissing
their armies and letting the senate and people
of Rome resolve
the conflict; he argued that their equally
matched power made
this a good time for peace,
but Pompey refused.
Caesar also sent
a message to Scipio in Macedonia
asking him to persuade Pompey
to agree, but to no avail.
Caesar's army attacked Pompey's fortifications
at
Dyrrhachium and in one battle lost 2,000 men.
According to
Caesar's Civil War his former commander
in Gaul, Labienus,
put to death the prisoners
to show his loyalty to Pompey.
Short of supplies which Pompey could get by sea,
Caesar marched
his forces to Thessaly.
Instead of returning to Italy, Pompey
chose to pursue,
and with the legions of Scipio making his army
twice as large
as Caesar's they met at Pharsalus; but Caesar's
tactics and
hardened veterans lost only about 1200 men as
they
killed
about 6,000 and captured about 24,000 of Pompey's army.
Caesar ordered that his prisoners not be harmed
nor have their
property taken.
Pompey fled and found a ship that took him
to
his wife at Mitylene.
Cato had retreated to Africa, and Pompey
went to Egypt,
where his advisors persuaded young Ptolemy XII
that
he could earn Caesar's gratitude and not have to fear Pompey
by killing him, which they did.
Caesar pursued Pompey in Asia, where
he reduced their taxes
by a third.
After the battle of Pharsalus many of Pompey's officers
came over to Caesar's side, and the consul Servilius and
the senate of Rome gave him a second dictatorship.
In 48 BC the praetor Caelius,
who advocated a moratorium
on all interest and debt payments,
was stripped of his office
by the senate and then joined Milo
in a revolt in which both were killed.
The next year tribune Dolabella's
proposal to cancel all debts
caused great disturbance; Caesar's
chosen master of horse
(deputy dictator) Mark Antony acted so
autocratically
quelling the riot in the capital with troops killing
800 people
including Dolabella's men that
in the next consular
election Caesar
ran with Lepidus instead of Antony.
In Alexandria Caesar was presented with
Pompey's head and ring.
He attempted to reconcile Cleopatra VII with her young
brother Ptolemy XII; but the latter's eunuch advisor Pothinus
and general Achillas plotted against him, as did her younger
brother and sister Arsinoe, causing a war in the city in which
the besieged Romans
burned the fleet of warships
and by accident the great library.
A young Mithridates of Pergamum brought an army
from Syria, enabling
the Romans to win the battle of the Nile
and pacify Alexandria.
Caesar granted the Jews equal rights with the Greeks
in Egypt and placed a Roman garrison in Alexandria.
Cleopatra at 20 married
her very young brother
Ptolemy XIII, and they became king and
queen of Egypt.
After Cleopatra gave birth to his son Caesarion,
Caesar marched through Syria to Pontus to meet the
army of Pharnaces,
who had occupied that country
and defeated Caesar's commander
Domitius Calvinus.
At Zela Caesar wrote tersely that he "came,
saw, conquered"
(veni vidi vici) and turned over the
Bosphoran kingdom
to Pharnaces' illegitimate brother Mithridates.
Caesar returned to Rome just in time to stop a mutiny
by his
honored tenth legion by threatening to dismiss them
from the service
before a lucrative expedition to Africa.
Caesar held elections
and was again elected consul
before going to Africa with eight
legions to defeat ten legions
led by Metellus Scipio and four
of Numidian king Juba
at Thapsus, killing according to Plutarch
50,000.
Scipio, Petreius, and Juba killed themselves.
Caesar had
the papers of Scipio burned
as he had those of Pompey before.
Cato as governor of Utica had not authorized freeing
the slaves but allowed their masters to do so;
after reading over Plato's Phaedo he also took
his own life,
which Caesar said he would have liked to save,
as
he had pardoned many including Cassius and Brutus,
who both became
praetors and his assassins.
In Rome after celebrating four triumphs for victories in Gaul,
Egypt, Pontus, and Africa, Caesar provided shows
and a banquet
for 20,000 people.
According to Appian it was said the money amounted
to
60,500 talents in silver and 20,414 pounds of gold,
and each
soldier was given 1500 drachmas.
Finally after being declared
dictator a third time
(this time for ten years) and consul a fourth
time,
Caesar took an army to Spain, where Quintus Cassius
had
governed so badly and stolen so much money
that he even alienated
his Roman army before dying
in a shipwreck after being summoned
to aid Caesar in Africa.
To stop desertions Cnaeus Pompey had
74 men beheaded
for favoring Caesar, but the desertions continued.
Many of Pompey's men had previously been pardoned
by Caesar, and
those captured a second time
were usually put to death.
After
he was nearly killed himself, Caesar's forces overcame
those led
by Pompey's sons, killing another 30,000 at Munda;
Cnaeus Pompey
was captured and killed,
though his brother Sextus escaped.
The
triumph over the Romans fighting in Spain was
celebrated with
less enthusiasm; but Caesar's clemency
was honored with a temple,
and he ordered Pompey's statues restored.
Caesar established forty colonies in the provinces
for his
soldiers, including Corinth and Carthage
which had been destroyed
one century before.
He reduced the number of those receiving free
grain
from 320,000 to 150,000, reflecting a diminished
population from war and 80,000 unemployed
sent to twenty colonies abroad.
He ordered an artificial harbor excavated at Ostia,
a canal across
the Corinthian isthmus,
and the Pomptine marshes and Lake Fucinus
to be drained.
After a year of fifteen lunar months he established
the solar
Julian calendar of 365 days with one day added
every
fourth February, and July was named after him.
To lessen the danger
of slave revolts,
a third of the shepherds had to be free-born.
As dictator Caesar granted citizenship to the transpadane
Gauls
and to all physicians and professional teachers in Rome.
A compliant
senate was increased from 600 to 900
and included many government
officials,
army officers, bankers, and industrialists.
Caesar
increased the penalties for crime so that
wealthy men might not
get away with
major crimes by mere exile,
since their property
could now be confiscated.
Canceling interest since the civil war
began reduced debt by a quarter.
He transferred tax collection
from private individuals
to municipal governments.
Inspectors
seized prohibited luxuries in the marketplace
and even in people's
private dining-rooms.
He ordered the civil code be reduced to a
publishable
set of written laws, and Marcus Varro was commissioned
to provide libraries and collect and classify
Greek and Latin
books.
Many of these projects and his Alexander-like
schemes to
invade the Scythians, Parthians, and encircle the Black
Sea
never occurred because of his assassination.
Virtually all
magistrates were being selected by Caesar;
eight prefects had
been chosen to represent him
while he was in Spain, and in February
44 BC
his dictatorship was declared perpetual.
People were also
offended when Caesar deprived Marullus
and Flavius of their tribuneship
for removing the diadems
put on Caesar's statues and for arresting
those
who first saluted him as king.
Because a Sibylline oracle
said that the Parthians
could only be conquered by a king,
on
March 15 the senate was to declare Caesar
king outside Italy in
the provinces three days before
he was scheduled to leave on his
eastern military expedition;
but in front of a statue of Pompey
at a senate meeting
Caesar, who had dismissed his bodyguard,
was
stabbed 23 times by a conspiracy
that involved sixty prominent
men.
With the exception of Decimus Brutus all the conspirators
had been prisoners pardoned by Caesar
after fighting for Pompey.
Although Casca was the first to stab Caesar, the leaders of
the
conspiracy were Caius Cassius and Marcus Brutus.
The mother
of Brutus, Servilia, was the sister of Cato and had
had an affair
with Julius Caesar, though rumors that Caesar
was his father are
unlikely since Brutus was only fifteen or
perhaps seventeen years
younger than Caesar.
Brutus was also married to the
courageous
Porcia, Cato's daughter.
Even though the father of Brutus had
been put to death by
Pompey as a follower of Marius, the rational
and virtuous
Brutus supported Pompey in the civil war for the
public good.
After the battle of Pharsalus, Caesar invited Brutus
to join him;
he governed Cisalpine Gaul well,
and by 44 BC Brutus
had become praetor.
He was even a possible successor to Caesar,
and his integrity drew many to the conspiracy against
Caesar's
dictatorship organized by Cassius.
Brutus was responsible for
limiting the assassination to
Caesar alone, sparing Mark Antony.
After the bloody murder in which Brutus' hand was
accidentally
wounded by Cassius, Brutus gave a speech at the
capitol explaining
the reasons for their action and suggesting the
recall of Sextus
Pompey and the two dismissed tribunes.
However, the speech by
Cinna denouncing Caesar caused a
violent reaction, and the conspirators
took refuge in the capitol
protected by gladiators.
Lepidus, returning
from Spain and Gaul with an army, brought
in a detachment to surround
the capitol but agreed
to send his son as a hostage.
Mark Antony,
who as a young man under the influence of
Curio had run up a debt
of 250 talents, also sent his son to
the capitol as a hostage
and then arranged for a meeting of the
senate, which passed Cicero's
decree
of amnesty for the conspirators.
The senate also voted
that no changes should be made in any
of Caesar's appointments
and programs, which Antony noted
Caesar had planned for the next
five years;
instead of submitting to elections by the people,
the senate chose to keep what they had.
The next day the senate thanked Antony for averting another
civil war, and provincial governorships allotted Crete to
Brutus,
Cyrene to Cassius, Asia to Trebonius, and
Cisalpine Gaul to Decimus
Brutus, though Caesar had assigned
Brutus to Macedonia and Cassius
to Syria.
At Caesar's funeral it was announced that his will adopted
his grandnephew Octavian and gave him three-quarters
of his estate; however, his gardens along the Tiber were given
to the public, and every Roman was to receive 60 denarii.
This and Antony's
eloquent eulogy aroused the sorrow and
anger of the people so
much that they made a funeral pyre of
benches and tables and were
only stopped from burning the
conspirators' houses by a resolve
to return the next day armed.
The conspirators quickly left Rome,
and the anger at Cinna
was so great that a tribune poet by that
name
was torn to pieces by a mob.
Antony obtained Caesar's papers from his widow Calpurnia
and
inserted names of men he wished to appoint to various
positions
or recall from exile and prison.
Antony allowed Caesar's replacement
Dolabella to be
co-consul with himself, but Antony acted so autocratically
that many wished for the return of Brutus
when he was to oversee
the games as praetor.
Antony angered Octavian and the plebeians
for executing
a man without trial for plotting against Brutus
and Cassius.
The senate passed Antony's resolution to recall
Sextus
Pompey, assigning him command of the seas.
Antony enlisted a personal
body guard, which soon grew
to 6,000 soldiers, mostly centurions.
Eighteen-year-old Octavian came to Rome to claim from
Antony as
Caesar's trustee the estate he had inherited
so that he could
pay the citizens what
Caesar had promised them.
At first Octavian
sided with the aristocratic party of Cicero
and the senate, but
he began mobilizing Caesar's veterans.
The senate put the praetors Brutus and Cassius in charge of
the
grain supply and assigned Dolabella to Syria, where he killed
the conspirator Trebonius, causing the senate to re-assign
Cassius
to Syria to make war on Dolabella, who summoned
four Roman legions
from Egypt; but when these went over to
Cassius, Dolabella was
defeated at Laodicea
and committed suicide.
Cassius sent his cavalry
into Cappadocia to kill Ariobarzanes
and seize its treasury, and
he inflicted such heavy tribute on
Tarsus that children, women,
and old and even young men
were sold into slavery.
The forces
of Cassius defeated Rhodes even though they
sent his old rhetoric
teacher to plead with him;
their treasury was also plundered,
as ten years of tribute was seized.
Antony got his assignment changed from Macedonia
to a five-year
command in Gaul.
In the senate Cicero
began attacking Antony in speeches
he called Philippics.
Antony suspected that Octavian was plotting to murder him,
as
thousands of soldiers defected to Octavian even though
he had
no authorization to raise troops.
Antony executed a few of his
troops for attempted mutiny.
Before the year was over, Antony
was sending his troops
into Gaul; but the senate passed Cicero's
resolution telling
Decimus Brutus to stay there, and Octavian
was made
propraetor as the two new consuls raised troops also.
When Antony besieged Decimus Brutus at Mutina,
he was attacked
and defeated by Octavian and the consuls,
who both were killed.
The senate declared Antony a public enemy, but he fled
across
the Alps and joined forces with Lepidus and Plancus.
Meanwhile
Marcus Brutus took over Macedonia even though
the senate had assigned
it to Antony's brother Caius,
whose troops Brutus won over in
Illyria;
the senate then assigned Brutus Illyria and Macedonia.
When the senate would not appropriate the large sums
Octavian
Caesar demanded to pay his troops nor elect the
youth consul, the adopted
Caesar marched his private army
to Rome and held his own consular
elections that appointed
him and his cousin Pedius.
His first
act in the assembly was to rescind the amnesty
and prosecute Caesar's
assassins in their absence.
Since Cassius and Brutus had raised
large armies in Syria
and Macedonia, this meant another civil
war.
Octavian met with Antony and Lepidus, and joining they
declared
themselves constituted triumvirs of the republic
with consular
power for five years.
They essentially appointed all magistrates,
as the senate
they controlled authorized all their acts in advance
including
unlimited conscription and taxation;
only the unpopular
word "dictator" was withheld.
Some historians have marked
the end of the Roman republic
on November 27, 43 BC, although
it took Octavian a dozen
years to consolidate power in his own
hands.
The triumvirate began by proscribing for political murder
300
senators and 2,000 knights.
Cicero
was one of the first to be killed, and Antony and
Lepidus even
had relatives listed.
As with Sulla's purge, large rewards were
given to those
informing or killing those on the list.
Many were
slaughtered amid panic, but a few escaped,
mostly to Sextus Pompey
in Sicily.
Property was confiscated to pay their 43 legions; but
this
raised little money, because people were too afraid to buy
these large estates even at low prices.
So they began taxing the
richest 1400 women, though
Hortensia, arguing that women who could
not vote
should not be taxed, got this reduced to 400.
Even the
treasury of the Vestal virgins was not spared.
Octavian appointed
Sextius governor of New (Numidian)
Africa, and Cornificius, who
would not yield his
senate-appointed authority, was defeated.
Brutus gained from Asia 16,000 talents tribute Apuleius had
collected; then he besieged and captured resisting Xanthus.
After
that, Patara and others in Lycia capitulated.
The twenty legions
of Brutus and Cassius met in Asia Minor
and then began marching
back through Thrace toward the
army of Antony and Octavian that
had crossed the Adriatic.
They met on the plains of Philippi.
Cassius was defeated by Antony and committed suicide;
but the
forces of the haunted Brutus were victorious over
those of the
ill Octavian, who guided by a dream left his tent.
Three weeks
later Brutus was defeated by Antony
and took his own life.
Much
money, food, and supplies were delivered to Antony
and Octavian
for their hungry army; but the triumvirs had
promised their soldiers
a bounty of 500 drachmas each,
and so had to impose heavy taxes
and tribute.
Two centuries later Appian wrote that Rome's form
of
government was decided at Philippi,
and they had not gone back
to democracy since.
As Octavian settled 100,000 veterans on Italian land,
Antony
levied tribute from the eastern provinces and
irritated many with
his indulgent pleasures in Greece;
he took property from many
noble families
and gave it to his friends.
A representative of
Asia claimed they had raised
200,000 talents for Antony.
This
Roman, so easily seduced by beautiful women,
summoned Cleopatra
VII to Cilicia to reprimand her for
supporting Cassius and quickly
came under the spell
of the Egyptian queen of Macedonian heritage
who could speak several languages.
Antony sent assassins to murder
her sister Arsinoe
and went with Cleopatra to Alexandria.
Antony's
jealous wife Fulvia agitated for a war to bring back
her husband,
and his brother Lucius as consul fought to
restore the republic;
but they were besieged into surrender at
Perusia by Octavian,
who had the Perusian senate and many
prominent Romans executed
but spared Lucius.
Labienus had gone from the side of Brutus to helping
Parthian
kings Orodes and Pacorus
to take over most of western Asia.
So
Antony went to meet the Parthians in Phoenicia and then
decided
to take his 200 ships to meet his wife Fulvia;
but she became
sick, was neglected by Antony, and died.
Antony accepted the support
of Ahenobarbus even though
he had been proscribed as a friend
of Brutus;
but Brundisium closed its gates to them.
Antony besieged
the port and sent for his army in Macedonia.
Octavian resented
these hostile actions and Antony's
negotiations with Sextus Pompey.
In 40 BC with famine, robbery, and public frustration
with strife, another civil war was delayed as Antony was once
again reconciled
with Octavian; they divided the Roman empire
at the Adriatic,
giving Octavian the west to Illyria,
Antony the east, and Lepidus
Africa.
Antony married Octavian's recently widowed sister Octavia,
who quickly bore him two daughters and a son, whom Virgil
in his Fourth Eclogue apparently hoped would be
a divine ruler
for a golden age.
Sextus Pompey still controlled Sicily, had taken over Sardinia,
and was blockading Rome's essential food supply with the
help of Ahenobarbus' control of the Ionian Gulf.
Antony sent Ahenobarbus
to Bithynia as governor and an
army led by Ventidius which pushed
back the Parthians,
killing Labienus and Parthian king Pacorus.
Famine caused a riot in the Roman forum, and a mob threw
stones
at Octavian.
Antony came and was respected, because he favored
a treaty with Sextus; but when Antony refused to leave,
they threw
stones at him too.
The insurrection was suppressed by the hated
triumvirs.
Meeting with Octavian and Antony, Sextus in exchange
for
keeping Sicily and Sardinia agreed to open the food channels,
keep the sea clear of pirates,
and stop giving refuge to fugitive
slaves.
Yet Octavian divorced Scribonia, who was related to
Pompey, and on the day she bore Julia, Octavian's only child,
he married
the pregnant Livia, the mother of Tiberius.
Antony returned to
the east and captured the
city of Samosata in Syria.
Brought together by Octavia, Antony met her brother again
at
Tarentum in 37 BC to renew the triumvirate for another
five years;
Octavian agreed to trade him 20,000 troops
(which he never sent)
for 120 galleys with bronze rams
to use against Sextus Pompey,
who had been caught sponsoring pirates.
Antony's general Sosius
recaptured Jerusalem,
where Herod was made king.
The next year
after some losses, young Caesar's admiral
Agrippa, using 30,000
freed slaves trained as oarsmen,
defeated Sextus Pompey in a naval
battle
involving 300 war-ships on each side.
The 40-year-old Pompey
fled to Antony in Asia, but after
negotiating with the Parthians
he was put to death by one
of Antony's officers.
Octavian now
had more than 500 war-ships and 45 legions.
Octavian put in place
a cohort system of night watchmen
that executed brigands and quickly
ended
the widespread robberies in Italy.
After so much civil strife
Octavian's efforts to bring order
and stability were appreciated.
The attempt of Lepidus to regain power by taking Sicily
was defeated,
although Octavian allowed him
to live on as chief priest.
Antony met Cleopatra in Syria and was so enamored that
he gave
her dominion over Phoenicia, lower Syria, Cypress,
part of Cilicia,
Judea, and the coast of Arabia.
After Phraates IV killed his father
Orodes and took over
Parthia, Antony marched an army through Arabia
and Armenia;
but in his impatience he let his siege equipment
trail behind
and be captured, as 10,000 of his men were killed;
departure of the forces of Armenian king Artavasdes also
contributed
to this disaster.
After his troops ran away from the Parthians,
Antony had his
own men decimated, killing one out of ten.
A four-week
winter retreat doubled the losses of Antony's
army mostly from
disease and cold, even though the
Romans had won eighteen battles
against the Parthians.
Antony invaded Armenia again in 34 BC
and captured its king
Artavasdes.
Celebrating a triumph in Egypt, Antony declared Cleopatra
queen of kings and her son Ptolemy Caesarion king of kings
as
co-rulers of Egypt and Cypress; for his own six-year old
twins
by her Alexander Sun received Armenia, Media, and
Parthia even
though Antony had not conquered them,
while Cleopatra Moon was
given Cyrenaica and Libya,
and two-year-old Ptolemy Philadelphus
got Syria and Cilicia.
These "Donations of Alexandria"
were resented in Rome;
in 32 BC after the consuls and 300 senators
on Antony's side
were driven out of the senate and Antony's divorce
of Octavia
became known, her brother had Antony's will read aloud
in the senate, revealing that his body was to be buried in Egypt.
Acting as the fetial priest, Octavian and the senate declared
war on Cleopatra, as oaths of allegiance were taken
to Octavian
as leader (dux).
The triumvirate had expired; Octavian
was elected consul
for 31 BC; though Antony was supposed to have
been consul
too, he was not elected and no longer
had any Roman
authority.
Although Antony's power was greater on land, Cleopatra,
providing
200 ships and 20,000 talents, insisted on
concentrating their
naval forces at the harbor of Actium,
where Octavian's admiral
Agrippa trapped them.
Many Roman officers resented the presence
of the Egyptian
queen; the ships of Cleopatra and Antony were
able to break
out, but most of the others did not; as the royal
couple
sailed for Egypt, their forces deserted to Octavian.
The
client-kings of Antony quickly went over to Octavian,
who had
to return to Italy to quell a mutiny of his veterans
by exempting
the freedmen from a tax and promising
his troops riches they would
gain in Alexandria;
he also evicted Italian communities that had
supported
Antony and gave their land to his veterans.
Cleopatra returned to Egypt showing signs of victory to
prevent
revolt and had prominent men she feared executed,
using their
estates to equip more forces and find new allies.
She had Armenian
king Artavasdes put to death
to try to please the king of Media.
Antony returned to his army in Cyrenaica, but Scarpus
put to death
the delegation Antony sent
and those soldiers who protested.
Octavian
sent a message to Cleopatra that if she had Antony
killed, he
would let her maintain her throne, while she
collected her treasure
in her tomb threatening to
destroy it or hoping to seduce Octavian,
whose forces captured Pelusium.
Antony attacked Octavian's army
with cavalry and shot
messages into his camp promising soldiers
6,000 sesterces;
but his infantry attack was defeated,
as Octavian
kept his troops loyal.
Hearing that Cleopatra was dead, Antony stabbed himself
with
his sword and died in Cleopatra's arms in her tomb;
she survived
but, dreading being displayed in Octavian's
triumph at Rome, let
herself be killed by an asp.
Octavian had her son Caesarion and
Antony's eldest son
by Fulvia put to death; but the children of
Cleopatra and
Antony were raised by Octavia, and Cleopatra Moon
was
married to Numidian king Juba II.
Seizing Cleopatra's treasury,
Octavian gained more money
than the state of Rome, where the interest
rates fell overnight
from 12 to 4 percent.
Egypt was made a tribute-paying
province ruled directly
by a prefect of Octavian, who traveled
to Asia to take over
Antony's dominions before returning to Rome,
where he was made tribune for life in 30 BC.
1. Sallust, The Jugurthine War 36 tr. S. A. Handford.
2. Appian, The Civil Wars 1:7:57 tr. Horace White.
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