FROM THE DEATH OF SULLA TO THE CONSULSHIP OF POMPEY AND CRASSUS. B.C.
78-70.
Sulla was scarcely dead before an attempt was made to overthrow the
aristocratic constitution which he had established. The Consul M.
Lepidus had already, as we have seen, endeavored to prevent the burial
of Sulla in the Campus Martius. He now proposed to repeal the Dictator's
laws; but the other Consul, Q. Catulus, remained firm to the
aristocracy, and offered the most strenuous opposition to the measures
of his colleague. Shortly afterward the Senate ordered Lepidus to repair
to Farther Gaul, which had been assigned to him as his Province; but he
availed himself of the opportunity to collect an army in Etruria, and at
the beginning of the following year marched straight upon Rome. The
Senate assembled an army, which they placed under the command of Q.
Catulus, with Pompey as his lieutenant. A battle was fought near the
Mulvian bridge, in which Lepidus was defeated, and, finding it
impossible to maintain his footing in Italy, he sailed with the
remainder of his forces to Sardinia, where he died soon afterward.
Meantime the remainder of the Marian party found refuge in Spain. Q.
Sertorius, one of the ablest of their generals, had received the
government of this country in the year B.C. 82. He soon acquired an
extraordinary ascendency over the minds of the natives, and flattered
them with the hope of establishing an independent state which might bid
defiance to Rome. His influence was enhanced by the superstition of the
people. He was accompanied on all occasions by a tame fawn, which they
believed to be a familiar spirit. So attached did they become to his
person, that he found no difficulty in collecting a formidable army,
which for some years successfully opposed all the power of Rome. After
defeating several generals whom Sulla had sent against him, he had to
encounter, in B.C. 79, Q. Metellus, who had been Consul the previous
year with Sulla. But Metellus did not fare much better than his
predecessors; and in B.C. 78 Sertorius was re-enforced by a considerable
body of troops which Perperna carried with him into Spain after the
defeat of Lepidus. The growing power of Sertorius led the Senate to send
Pompey to the assistance of Metellus. Pompey, though only 30 years of
age, was already regarded as the ablest general of the Republic; and as
he played such a prominent part in the later history, we may here pause
to give a brief account of his early career.
POMPEY was born B.C. 106, and was, as we have already seen, the son of
Cn. Pompeius Strabo, who fought against the Italians in his Consulship,
B.C. 89. The young Pompey served under his father in this war, when he
was only 17 years of age, and continued with him till his death two
years afterward. He was present at the battle of the Colline Gate in
B.C. 87, and shortly afterward he saved the life of his father, and
quelled an insurrection of the soldiers by his courage and activity. As
soon as Sulla had finished the Mithridatic war, and was on his way to
Italy, Pompey, instead of waiting, like the other leaders of the
aristocracy, for the arrival of their chief, resolved to share with him
the glory of crushing the Marian party. Accordingly, he proceeded to
levy troops in Picenum without holding any public office; and such was
his personal influence that he was able to raise an army of three
legions. Before joining Sulla he gained a brilliant victory over the
Marian generals, and was received by Sulla with the greatest
distinction. Upon the conclusion of the war in Italy Pompey was sent
first into Sicily, and afterward into Africa, where the Marian party
still held out. His success was rapid and decisive. In a few months he
reduced the whole of Numidia, and, unlike other Roman governors,
abstained from plundering the province. His military achievements and
his incorruptibility procured him the greatest renown, and he returned
to Rome covered with glory (B.C. 80). Numbers flocked out of the city to
meet him; and the Dictator himself, who formed one of the crowd, greeted
him with the surname of MAGNUS or the GREAT, which he bore ever
afterward. Sulla at first refused to let him triumph. Hitherto no one
but a Dictator, Consul, or Prætor had enjoyed this distinction; but as
Pompey insisted upon the honor, Sulla gave way, and the young general
entered Rome in triumph as a simple Eques, and before he had completed
his 25th year.
Pompey again exhibited his power in promoting, in B.C. 79, the election
of M. Æmilius Lepidus to the Consulship, in opposition to the wishes of
Sulla. The latter had now retired from public affairs, and contented
himself with warning Pompey, as he met him returning from the comitia in
triumph, "Young man, it is time for you not to slumber, for you have
strengthened your rival against yourself." Lepidus seems to have
reckoned upon the support of Pompey; but in this he was disappointed,
for Pompey remained faithful to the aristocracy, and thus saved his
party. He fought at the Mulvian bridge against Lepidus, as we have
already related, and afterward marched into Cisalpine Gaul against the
remains of his party. The Senate, who now began to dread Pompey, ordered
him to disband his army; but he found various excuses for evading this
command, as he was anxious to obtain the command of the war against
Sertorius in Spain. They hesitated, however, to give him this
opportunity for gaining fresh distinction and additional power; and it
was only in consequence of the increasing power of Sertorius that they
at length unwillingly determined to send Pompey to Spain, with the title
of Proconsul, and with powers equal to Metellus.
Pompey arrived in Spain in B.C. 76. He soon found that he had a more
formidable enemy to deal with than any he had yet encountered. He
suffered several defeats, and, though he gained some advantages, yet
such were his losses that at the end of two years he was obliged to send
to Rome for re-enforcements. The war continued three years longer; but
Sertorius, who had lost some of his influence over the Spanish tribes,
and who had become an object of jealousy to M. Perperna and his
principal Roman officers, was unable to carry on operations with the
same vigor as during the two preceding years. Pompey accordingly gained
some advantages over him, but the war was still far from a close; and
the genius of Sertorius would probably have soon given a very different
aspect to affairs had he not been assassinated by Perperna in B.C. 72.
Perperna had flattered himself that he should succeed to the power of
Sertorius; but he soon found that he had murdered the only man who was
able to save him from ruin. In his first battle with Pompey he was
completely defeated, his principal officers slain, and himself taken
prisoner. Anxious to save his life, he offered to deliver up to Pompey
the papers of Sertorius, containing letters from many of the leading men
at Rome. But Pompey refused to see him, and commanded the letters to be
burnt. The war was now virtually at an end, and the remainder of the
year was employed in subduing the towns which still held out against
Pompey. Metellus had taken no part in the final struggle with Perperna,
and Pompey thus obtained the credit of bringing the war to a conclusion.
The people longed for his return, that he might deliver Italy from
Spartacus and his horde of gladiators, who had defeated the Consuls, and
were in possession of a great part of the peninsula.
A righteous retribution had overtaken the Romans for their love of the
cruel sports of the amphitheatre. The gladiators were generally
prisoners taken in war, and sold to persons who trained them in schools
for the Roman games. There was such a school at Capua, and among the
gladiators was a Thracian of the name of Spartacus, originally a chief
of banditti, who had been taken prisoner by the Romans, and was now
destined to be butchered for their amusement. Having prevailed upon
about 70 of his comrades, he burst out of the school with them,
succeeded in obtaining arms, and took refuge in the crater of Vesuvius,
at that time an extinct volcano (B.C. 73). Here he was soon joined by
large numbers of slaves, who flocked to him from all quarters. He was
soon at the head of a formidable army. The desolation of the Social and
Civil Wars had depopulated Italy, while the employment of slave-labor
furnished Spartacus with an endless supply of soldiers. In addition to
this, the war with Sertorius was not yet finished, and that with
Mithridates, of which we shall speak presently, had already commenced.
For upward of two years Spartacus was master of Italy, which he laid
waste from the foot of the Alps to the southernmost corner of the
peninsula. In B.C. 72 he found himself at the head of 100,000 men, and
defeated both Consuls. As the Consuls of the following year had no
military reputation, the conduct of the war was intrusted to the Prætor,
M. Licinius Crassus, who had greatly distinguished himself in the wars
of Sulla. He had been rewarded by the Dictator with donations of
confiscated property, and had accumulated an immense fortune. Six
legions were now given him in addition to the remains of the Consular
armies already in the field. The Roman troops were disheartened and
disorganized by defeat, but Crassus restored discipline by decimating
the soldiers. Spartacus was driven to the extreme point of Bruttium.
Crassus drew strong lines of circumvallation around Rhegium, and by his
superior numbers prevented the escape of the slaves. Spartacus now
attempted to pass over to Sicily, where he would have been welcomed by
thousands of followers. He failed in the attempt to cross the straits,
but at length succeeded in forcing his way through the lines of Crassus.
The Roman general hastened in pursuit, and in Lucania fell in with the
main body of the fugitives. A desperate battle ensued, in which
Spartacus perished, with the greater part of his followers. About 6000
were taken prisoners, whom Crassus impaled on each side of the Appian
road between Rome and Capua. A body of 5000 made their way northward,
whom Pompey met as he was returning from Spain, and cut to pieces.
Crassus had, in reality, brought the war to an end, but Pompey took the
credit to himself, and wrote to the Senate, saying, "Crassus, indeed,
has defeated the enemy, but I have extirpated them by the roots."
Pompey and Crassus now approached the city at the head of their armies,
and each laid claim to the Consulship. Neither of them was qualified by
the laws of Sulla. Pompey was only in his 35th year, and had not even
held the office of Quæstor. Crassus was still Prætor, and two years
ought to elapse before he could become Consul. Pompey, however, agreed
to support the claims of Crassus, and the Senate dared not offer open
opposition to two generals at the head of powerful armies. Pompey,
moreover, declared himself the advocate of the popular rights, and
promised to restore the Tribunitian power. Accordingly, they were
elected Consuls for the following year. Pompey entered the city in
triumph on the 31st of December, B.C. 71, and Crassus enjoyed the honor
of an ovation.
The Consulship of Pompey and Crassus (B.C. 70) was memorable for the
repeal of the most important portions of Sulla's constitutional reforms.
One of Pompey's first acts was to redeem the pledge he had given to the
people, by bringing forward a law for the restoration of the Tribunitian
power. The law was passed with little opposition; for the Senate felt
that it was worse than useless to contend against Pompey, supported as
he was by the popular enthusiasm and by his troops, which were still in
the immediate neighborhood of the city. He also struck another blow at
the aristocracy. By one of Sulla's laws, the Judices, during the last
ten years, had been chosen from the Senate. The corruption and venality
of the latter in the administration of justice had excited such general
indignation that some change was clamorously demanded by the people.
Accordingly, the Prætor L. Aurelius Cotta, with the approbation of
Pompey, proposed a law by which the Judices were to be taken in future
from the Senate, Equites, and Tribuni Ærarii, the latter probably
representing the wealthier members of the third order in the state. This
law was likewise carried; but it did not improve the purity of the
administration of justice, since corruption was not confined to the
Senators, but pervaded all classes of the community alike. Pompey had
thus broken with the aristocracy, and had become the great popular hero.
In carrying both these measures he was strongly supported by Cæsar, who,
though he was rapidly rising in popular favor, could as yet only hope to
weaken the power of the aristocracy through Pompey's means.
[Illustration: Temple of Pudicitia Patricia at Rome.]
[Illustration: Coin of Mithridates.]