triumph, while Crassus received the less important distinction of an
ovation, [Footnote: In a triumph in these times, the victorious
general, clad in a robe embroidered with gold, and wearing a laurel
wreath, solemnly entered the city riding in a chariot drawn by four
horses. The captives and spoils went before him, and the army followed.
He passed along the Via Sacra on the Forum Romanum, and went up to the
Capitol to sacrifice in the temple of Jupiter. In the ovation the
general entered the city on foot, wore a simple toga, and a wreath of
myrtle, and was in other respects not so conspicuously honored as in
the triumph. The two celebrations differed in other respects also.] as
it was called, because his success had been obtained over slaves, less
honorable adversaries than those whom Pompey had met. Each desired to
be consul, but neither was properly qualified for the office, and
therefore they agreed to overawe the senate and win the office for
both, each probably thinking that at the first good opportunity he
would get the better of the other. In this plan they were successful,
and thus two aristocrats came to the head of government, and the
oligarchy, to which one of them belonged, went out of power, and soon
Pompey, who all the time posed as the friend of the people, proceeded
to repeal the most important parts of the legislation of Sulla. The
tribunes were restored, and Pompey openly broke with the aristocracy to
which by birth he belonged, thus beginning a new era, for the social
class of a man's family was no longer to indicate the political party
to which he should give his adherence.
[Illustration: TRIUMPHAL PROCESSION OF A ROMAN GENERAL]
XV.
PROGRESS OF THE GREAT POMPEY.
The master spirits of this remarkable age were now in full action on
the stage, and it is difficult to keep the eye fixed upon all of them
at once. Now one is prominent and now another; all are pushing their
particular interests, while each tries to make it appear that he has
nothing but the good of the state at heart. Whenever it is evident that
a certain cause is the popular one, the various leaders, opposed on
most subjects, are united to help it, in the hope of catching the
popular breeze. During the consulship of Pompey and Catulus, Pompey was
the principal Roman citizen, and he tried to make sure that his
prestige should not be lessened when he should step down from his high
office.
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF A ROMAN HOUSE]
Crassus, aristocrat by birth and aristocrat by choice, had been a
candidate for the senate in opposition to Pompey, but he soon found
that his interest demanded that he should make peace with his powerful
colleague, and as he did it, he told the people that he did not
consider that his action was in any degree base or humiliating, for he
simply made advances to one whom they had themselves named the Great.
Crowds daily courted Pompey on account of his power; but a multitude
equally numerous surrounded Crassus for his wealth, and Cicero on
account of his wonderful oratory. Even Julius Cæsar, the strong Marian,
who pronounced a eulogy upon his aunt, the widow of Marius, seemed also
to pay homage to Pompey, when, a year later, he took to wife Pompeia, a
relative of the great soldier (B.C. 67).
Both Cæsar and Pompey saw that gross corruption was practised by the
chiefs of the senate when they had control of the provinces, and knew
that it ought to be exposed and effectually stopped, but Cæsar was the
first to take action. He was quickly followed by Pompey, however, who
encouraged Cicero to denounce the crimes of Verres with the success
that we have already noticed. Cicero loftily exclaimed that he did not
seek to chastise a single wicked man who had abused his authority as
governor, but to extinguish and blot out all wickedness in all places,
as the Roman people had long been demanding; but with all his eloquence
he was not able to make the people appreciate the fact that the
interests of Rome were identical with the well-being and prosperity of
her allies, distant or near at hand.
Both Crassus and Pompey retired from the consulship amid the plaudits
of the people and with the continued friendship of the optimates.
Crassus, out of his immense income, spread a feast for the people on
ten thousand tables; dedicated a tenth of his wealth to Hercules; and
distributed among the citizens enough grain to supply their families
three months. With all his efforts, however, he could not gain the
favor which Pompey apparently held with ease. For two years Pompey
assumed royal manners, and gave himself up to the enjoyment of his
popularity, but then beginning to fear that without some new evidence
of genius he might lose the admiration of the people, he began to make
broad plans to astonish them.
For years the Mediterranean Sea had been infested by daring pirates,
who at last made it unsafe for a Roman noble even to drive to his sea-
side villa, or a merchant to venture abroad for purposes of trade.
Cities had been ravaged, and the enemies of Rome had from time to time
made alliances with the marauders. The pirates dyed their sails with
Tyrian purple, they inlaid their oars with silver, and they spread gold
on their pennants, so rich had their booty made them. Nor were they
less daring than rich; they had captured four hundred towns of
importance, they had once kidnapped Cæsar himself, and held him for
enormous ransom, [Footnote: This occurred in the year 76 B.C., when
Cæsar, at the age of twenty-four, was on his way to Rhodes, intending
to perfect himself in oratory at the school of Apollonius Molo, the
teacher of Cicero, lie was travelling as a gentleman of rank, and was
captured off Miletus. After a captivity of six weeks, during which he
mingled freely with the games and pastimes of the pirates, though
plainly assuring them that he should one day hang them all, Cæsar was
liberated, on payment of a ransom of some fifty thousand dollars. Good
as his word, he promptly collected a fleet of vessels, returned to the
island, seized the miscreants as they were dividing their plunder,
carried them off to Pergamos, and had them crucified. He then went on
to Rhodes, and practised elocution for two years.] and now they
threatened to cut off the entire supply of grain that came from Africa,
Sardinia, and Sicily,
The crisis was evident to all, and in it Pompey saw his opportunity. In
the year 67, he caused a law to be introduced by the tribune Gabinius,
ordaining that a commander of consular rank should be appointed for
three years, with absolute power over the sea and the coasts about it
for fifty miles inland, together with a fleet of two hundred sail, with
officers, seamen, and supplies. When the bill had passed, Gabinius
declared that there was but one man fit to exercise such remarkable
power, and it was conferred with acclamations upon Pompey, whom he
nominated. The price of grain immediately fell, for every one had
confidence that the dread crisis was passed. The people were right, for
in a few weeks the pirates had all been brought to terms. Pompey had
divided the sea into thirteen parts, and in each of them the
freebooters had been encountered in open battle, driven into creeks and
captured, or forced to take refuge in their castles and hunted out of
them, so that those who were not taken had surrendered.
The next move among the master spirits led to the still greater
advancement of Pompey. His supporters at Rome managed to have him
appointed to carry on a war in the East. In the year 74, when other
enemies of the republic seized the opportunity to rise against Rome,
Mithridates, never fully conquered, entered upon a new war. Lucius
Licinius Lucullus, who had gained fame in the former struggle with
Mithridates, was sent again to protect Roman interests in Pontus. He
completely broke the power of the great monarch, in spite of his vast
preparations for the struggle, but, under a pretext, he was now
superseded by Pompey, who went out with a feigned appearance of
reluctance, to pluck the fruit just ready to drop (B.C. 66). Cicero
urged Pompey to accept this new honor, [Footnote: When the Manilian law
which enlarged the powers of Pompey was under discussion, Cicero made
his first address to the Roman people, and though vigorously opposed by
Hortensius and Catulus, carried the day against the senate and the
optimates whom they represented. This oration contains a panegyric of
Pompey for suppressing piracy, and argues that a public servant who has
done well once deserves to be trusted again.] and Cæsar, who enjoyed
the precedents that Pompey had established, in adopting monarchical
style, was now glad to have a rival removed from the country, that he
might have, better opportunity to perfect his own plans.
[Illustration: A ROMAN POETESS.]
The third or great Mithridatic war lasted from the year 74, when
Lucullus was sent out, to 61. By the terms of the Manilian law, Pompey
went out with unlimited power over the whole of Asia, as far as
Armenia, as well as over the entire Roman forces; and as he already was
supreme over the region about the Mediterranean Sea, he was practically
dictator throughout all of the dominions of the republic. He planned
his first campaign with so much skill that he cut Mithridates off from
all help by sea, and destroyed every hope of alliances with other
rulers. So clearly did it appear to the Pontic monarch that resistance
would be vain, that he sued for peace. Pompey would accept no terms but
unconditional surrender, however, and negotiations were broken off.
Mithridates determined to avoid battle, but Pompey finally surprised
and defeated him in Lesser Armenia, forcing him to flight. He found a
retreat in the mountainous region north of the Euxine Sea, where Pompey
was unable to follow him. There he meditated grand schemes against the
Romans, which he was utterly unable to carry out, and at last he fell a
victim to the malevolence of one of his former favorites (B.C. 63).
Pompey continued his conquering progress throughout Asia Minor, and did
not return to Rome until he had subdued Armenia, Syria, Phoenicia, and
Palestine, [Footnote: There was civil war in Palestine at the time, and
the king surrendered to Pompey, but the people refused, took refuge in
the stronghold of the temple, and were only overcome after a seige of
three months. Pompey explored the temple, examined the golden vessels,
the table of shew bread, and the candlesticks in their places, but was
surprised to find the Holy of Holies empty, there being no
representation of a deity. He reverently refrained from touching the
gold, the spices, and the money that he saw, and ordered the place to
be cleansed and purified that service might be resumed.] had
established many cities, and had organized the frontier of the Roman
possessions from the Euxine to the river Jordan. When he arrived at
Rome, on the first of January, 61, he found that affairs had
considerably changed during his absence, and it was not easy for him to
determine what position he should assume in relation to the political
parties. Cicero offered him his friendship; Cato, grandson of the stern
old censor, and an influential portion of the senate opposed him;
Crassus and Lucullus, too, were his personal enemies; and Cæsar, who
appeared to support him, had really managed to prepare for him a
secondary position in the state. On the last day of September, Pompey
celebrated the most splendid triumph that the city had ever seen, and
with it the glorious part of his life ended. Over three hundred captive
princes walked before his chariot, and brazen tablets declared that he
had captured a thousand fortresses, many small towns, and eight hundred
ships; that he had founded thirty-nine cities, and vastly raised the
public revenue.
The year following the departure of Pompey for the East was rendered
noteworthy by the breaking out of a conspiracy that will never be
forgotten so long as the writings of Cicero and Sallust remain. These
were times of treasons, stratagems, and greed for spoils. Vice and
immorality were rampant, and among the vicious and debased none had
fallen lower than Lucius Sergius Catiline, a ferocious man of powerful
body and strong mind, who first appears as a partisan of Sulla and an
active agent in his proscription. All his powers were perverted to
evil, and when to his natural viciousness there was added the intensity
of disappointed political ambition, he was ready to plunge his country
into the most desperate strife to gratify his hate. He stands for the
worst vices of this wretched age. He had been a provincial governor,
and in Africa had perpetrated all the crimes that Cicero could impute
to a Verres, and thus had proclaimed himself a villain of the deepest
dye, both abroad and at home.
Gathering about him the profligate nobles and the criminals who had
nothing to lose and every thing to gain by revolution, Catiline plotted
to murder the consuls and seize the government; but his attempt was
foiled, and he waited for a more favorable opportunity. Two years later
he was defeated by Cicero as candidate for the consulship, and the plot
was renewed, it being then determined to add the burning of the city to
the other atrocities contemplated. Cicero discovered the scheme, and
unveiled its horrid details in four orations; but again the miserable
being was permitted to escape justice. He was present and listened in
rage to the invective of Cicero until he could bear it no longer, and
then rushed wildly out and joined his armed adherents, an open enemy of
the state. His plot failed in the city through imprudence of the
conspirators and the skill of Cicero, and he himself fled, hoping to
reach Gaul. He was, however, hemmed in by the Roman army and killed in
a battle. Catiline's head was sent to Rome to assure the government
that he was no more. Cicero, who had caused nine of the conspirators to
be put to death, [Footnote: Under Roman law no citizen could legally be
put to death except by the sanction of the Comitia Curiata, the
sovereign assembly of the people, though it often happened that the
regulation was ignored. If nobody dared or cared to object, no notice
was taken of the irregularity, but we shall see that Cicero paid dearly
for his action at this time.] now laid down his consular authority amid
the plaudits of the people, who, under the lead of Cato and Catulus,
hailed him as the Father of his Country.
Cicero was apparently spoiled by his success. Carried away by his own
oratorical ability, he too often reminded the people in his long and
eloquent speeches of the great deeds that he had done for the country.
They cheered him as he spoke, but after this they never raised him to
power again.
Just about this time a noble named Publius Clodius Pulcher, who was a
demagogue of the worst moral character, in the pursuance of his base
intrigues, committed an act of sacrilege by entering the house of
Cæsar, disguised as a woman, during the celebration of the mysteries of
the Bona Dea, to which men were never admitted. He was tried for the
impiety, and, through the efforts of Cicero, was almost convicted,
though he managed to escape by bribery. He was ever afterward a
determined enemy of the great orator, and, by the aid of Pompey, Cæsar,
and Crassus, finally succeeded in having him condemned for putting to
death the Catilinian conspirators without due process of law. Cicero
does not appear manly in the story of this affair. He left Rome,
fearing to face the result; and after he had gone Clodius caused a bill
to be passed by which he was declared a public enemy, and every citizen
was forbidden to give him fire or water within four hundred miles of
Rome (spring of 58). He found his way to Brundusium and thence to
Greece, where he passed his time in the most unmanly wailings and
gloomy forebodings. His property was confiscated, his rich house on the
Palatine Hill and his villas being given over to plunder and
destruction. Strange as it appears, Cicero was recalled the next year,
and entered the city amid the hearty plaudits of the changeful people,
though his self-respect was gone and his spirit broken.
Meantime, Cæsar had been quietly pushing himself to the front. He had
returned from Spain, where he had been governor, at about the time that
Pompey had returned from the East. He reconciled that great warrior to
Crassus (called from his immense wealth _Dives_, the rich), and with
the two made a secret arrangement to control the government. This was
known as the _First Triumvirate_ [Footnote: Each of the three pledged
himself not to speak nor to act except to subverse the common interest
of all, though of course they were not sincere in their promises of
mutual support.] or government of three men, though it was only a
coalition, and did not strictly deserve the name given it (B.C. 60).
Cæsar reaped the first-fruits of the league, as he intended, by
securing the office of consul, through the assistance of his
colleagues, whose influence proved irresistible.
[Illustration: THE FORUM ROMANUM IN MODERN TIMES.]
Entering upon his office in the year 59, Cæsar very soon obtained the
good-will of all,--first winning the people by proposing an agrarian
law dividing the public lands among them. This was the last law of this
sort, as that of Cassius (B.C. 486) had been the first. [Footnote: See
page 83.] He rewarded Crassus by means of a law remitting one third of
the sum that the publicans who had agreed to farm the revenues in Asia
Minor had contracted to pay to the state; and satisfied Pompey by a
ratification of all his acts in the East. The distribution of the lands
among the people was placed in the hands of Pompey and Crassus.
At the end of his term of office Cæsar was made governor of Gaul, an
office which he sought no more for the opportunity it afforded of
gaining renown by conquering those ancient enemies who had formerly
visited Rome with such dire devastation, than because he hoped to win
for himself an army and partisans who would be useful in carrying out
further ambitious ends.
Cæsar now entered upon a wonderful career of conquest, which lasted
nine years. The story of what he accomplished during the first seven is
given in his "Commentaries," as they are called, which are still read
in schools, on account of the incomparable simplicity, naturalness, and
purity of the style in which they are written, as well as because they
seem to give truthful accounts of the events they describe. Sixty years
before this time the Romans had possessed themselves of a little strip
of Gaul south of the Alps, which was known as the Province, [Footnote:
See pages 166 and 182.] and though they had ever since thought that
there was a very important region to the north and west that might be
conquered, they made no great effort to gain it. Cæsar was now to win
imperishable laurels by effecting what had been before only vaguely
dreamed of. He first made himself master of the country of the Helvetii
(modern Switzerland), defeated the Germans under their famous general
Ariovistus, and subjected the Belgian confederacy. The frightful
carnage involved in these campaigns cannot be described, and the
thousands upon thousands of brave barbarians who were sacrificed to the
extension of Roman civilization are enough to make one shudder. When
the despatches of Cæsar announcing his successes reached Rome, the
senate, on motion of Cicero, though against the protestations of Cato,
ordained that a grand public thanksgiving, lasting fifteen days, should
be celebrated (B.C. 57). This was an unheard-of honor, the most
ostentatious thanksgiving of the kind before--that given to Pompey,
after the close of the war against Mithridates--having lasted but ten
days.
Pompey and Crassus had fallen out during the absence of Cæsar, and he
now invited them to meet and consult at Lucca, at the foot of the
Apennines, just north of Pisa, where (April, 56) he held a sort of
court, hundreds of Roman senators waiting upon him to receive the
bribes with which he ensured the success of his measures during his
absences in the field. [Footnote: Pompey had left Rome ostensibly for
the purpose of arranging for supplies of grain from Africa and
Sardinia. He was followed by many of his most noted adherents, the
conference counting more than two hundred senators and sixscore
lictors. Cæsar, like a mighty magician, caused the discordant spirits
to act in concert. The power of the triumvirs is shown by the change
that came over public opinion, and the calmness with which their acts
were submitted to, though it was evident that the historic form of
government was to be overturned, and a monarchy established. ] Here the
three agreed that Pompey should rule Spain, Crassus Syria, and Cæsar
Gaul, which he had made his own. Cæsar still kept on with his
conquests, meeting desperate resistance, however, from the hordes of
barbarians, who would not remain conquered, but engaged in revolts that
caused him vast trouble and the loss of large numbers of soldiers.
Incidentally to his other wars, he made two incursions into Britain,
the home of our forefathers (B.C. 55 and 54), and nominally conquered
the people, but it was not a real subjugation. Shakespeare did not make
a mistake when he put into the mouth of the queen-wife of Cymbeline the
words:
* * * "A kind of conquest
Cæsar made here; but made not here his brag
Of 'came' and 'saw' and 'overcame,'"
and certainly the brave Britons did not continue to obey their self-
styled Roman "rulers."
In the sixth year of Cæsar's campaigns in Gaul, it seemed as if all was
to be lost to the Romans. There arose a young general named
Vercingetorix, who was much abler than any leader the Gauls had ever
opposed to their enemies, and he united them as they had never been
united before. This man persuaded his countrymen to lay their own
country waste, in order that it might not afford any abiding place for
the Romans, but contrary to his intentions one town that was strongly
fortified was left, and to that Cæsar laid siege, finally taking it and
butchering all the men, women, and children that it contained.
Vercingetorix then fortified himself at Alesia (southeast of Paris),
where he was, of course, besieged by the Romans, but soon Cæsar found
his own forces attacked in the rear, and surrounded by a vast army of
Gauls, who had come to the relief of their leader. In the face of such
odds, he succeeded in vanquishing the enemy, and took the place,
achieving the most wonderful act of his genius. The conquered chief was
reserved to grace a Roman triumph, and to die by the hand of a Roman
executioner. [Footnote: The historian Mommsen says of this unfortunate
"barbarian": "As after a day of gloom the sun breaks through the clouds
at its setting, so destiny bestows on nations in their decline a last
great man. Thus Hannibal stands at the close of the Phoenician history
and Vercingetorix at the close of the Celtic. They were not all to save
the nations to which they belonged from a foreign yoke, but they spared
them the last remaining disgrace--an ignominious fall.... The whole
ancient world presents no more genuine knight [than Vercingetorix],
whether as regards his essential character or his outward appearance."]
The fate of Gaul was now certain, and Cæsar found comparatively little
difficulty in subduing the remaining states, the last of which was
Aquitania, the flat and uninteresting region in the southwest of modern
France, watered by the Garonne and washed by the Atlantic. The
conqueror treated the Gauls with mildness, and endeavored in every way
to make them adopt Roman habits and customs. As they had lost all hope
of resisting him, they calmly accepted the situation, and the
foundation of the subsequent Romanizing of the west of Europe was laid.
Three million Gauls had been conquered, a million had been butchered,
and another million taken captive, while eight hundred cities, centres
of active life and places of the enjoyment of those social virtues for
which the rough inhabitants of the region were noted, had been
destroyed. Legions of Roman soldiers had been cut to pieces in
accomplishing this result, the influence of which upon the history of
Europe can hardly be over-estimated Cæsar had completely eclipsed the
military prestige of his rival, Pompey the Great.
XVI.
HOW THE TRIUMVIRS CAME TO UNTIMELY ENDS.