Meanwhile there seem to have grown up, after the death of Sulla, four
factions in Rome: the “oligarchical faction,” consisting of the small
number of families the chiefs of which directed the senate, and in fact
governed the republic; the “aristocratic faction,” comprising the mass
of the senators anxious to obtain the power usurped by a few of their
colleagues; the “Marian party,” including all those whose families had
been prosecuted by Sulla, and who now began to rally, and aspire to
power; the “military faction,” embracing a crowd of old officers of
Sulla, who, having squandered the fortunes they had gained under him,
were eager for some revolution that might give them the opportunity to
improve their condition.
THE GREAT LEADERS OF THE FACTIONS--POMPEY, CICERO, CRASSUS, CAESAR AND
CATILINE
At the head of the oligarchical faction was Pompey; but during his
absence in Asia its representative was Marcus Tullius Cicero (born 106
B. C.), who had established his reputation as the first orator in Rome.
He had risen through various offices to the prætorship, and at the time
Pompey left for the East aspired to be consul. He did not himself belong
to a noble family, but still he made himself the champion of the
oligarchy. Though vain and boastful, he was a virtuous and patriotic
man.
The leader of the aristocratic faction was Crassus, formerly the
colleague of Pompey in the consulship, now his personal rival. He was a
man of no great ability, but his position and his immense wealth made
him influential. (After prodigious expenditures, he died worth ten
million dollars.)
The leader of the third, or Marian party, was a man six years younger
than Pompey or Cicero, who, distinguished in youth for his
accomplishments and his extravagance, rose in the year 65 B. C. to the
office of edile. This was Caius Julius Cæsar,--a man of pre-eminent
ability, one of the greatest that ever lived. He was the nephew of
Marius, and now stood forward as the leader of the Marian party. He was
of an old patrician family, and took up the cause of the people to serve
his own ends.