First Triumvirate

First Triumvirate

Gaius Julius Caesar
Marcus Licinius Crassus
Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus
Roman Government	Political institutions
Social classes	Patrician, Senatorial class, Equestrian class, Plebian, Freedman
The first triumvirate catalyzed the end of the Roman Republic.

See also: First Triumvirate (Argentina) which came to power in 1811.

The First Triumvirate was the political alliance of Gaius Julius Caesar, Marcus Licinius Crassus, and Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus. Unlike the Second Triumvirate, the First Triumvirate had no official status whatsoever; its overwhelming power in the Roman Republic was strictly unofficial influence, and was in fact kept secret for some time as part of the political machinations of the Triumvirs themselves. It was formed in 59 BC and lasted until Caesar's death in 44 BC.

History

Crassus and Pompey had been colleagues in the consulship in 70 BC, when they had legislated the full restoration of the tribunate of the people (the dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla had stripped the office of all its rights except the ius auxiliandi, the right to rescue a plebeian from the clutches of a patrician magistrate). However, since that time, the two men had entertained considerable antipathy for one another, each believing the other to have gone out of his way to increase his own reputation at his colleague's expense.

Caesar contrived to reconcile the two men, and then combined their clout with his own to have himself elected consul in 59 BC; he and Crassus were already friends (modern consensus as to the beginning of the friendship to be as early as 65 where a young Caesar supported Crassus's proposal to make Egypt tributary to Rome), and he solidified his alliance with Pompey by giving him his own daughter, Julia, in marriage. The alliance combined Caesar's enormous popularity and legal reputation with Crassus's fantastic wealth and influence within the plutocratic Equestrian order (ordo equester) and Pompey's equally spectacular wealth and military reputation.

The Triumvirate was kept secret until the Senate obstructed Caesar's proposed agrarian law establishing colonies of Roman citizens and distributing portions of the public lands (ager publicus). He promptly brought the law before the Council of the People in a speech that found him flanked by Crassus and Pompey, thus revealing the alliance. Caesar's agrarian law was carried through, and the Triumviri then proceeded to allow the demagogue Publius Clodius Pulcher's election as tribune of the people, successfully ridding themselves both of Marcus Tullius Cicero and Cato the Younger, both adamant opponents of the Triumviri.

The Triumvirate proceeded to make further arrangements for itself. The senate awarded Caesar, as a snub to his dealings in the Triumvirate, "the woods and paths of Italy" as his proconsul territory. Caesar passed, through a tribune, his own ruling on the matter, and became proconsul of both Gauls (Gallia Cisalpina and Gallia Transalpina) and of Illyricum, with command of four legions, for five years; Caesar's new father-in-law, Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus, was made consul for 58 BC, and Pompey and Crassus shared a second consulate in 55 BC. Pompey and Crassus then extended Caesar's proconsular government in the Gauls for another five years and secured for themselves as proconsuls the government of both Hispanias (Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior) and of Syria, respectively, for five-year terms.

The alliance had allowed the Triumvirs to dominate Roman politics completely, but it would not last indefinitely due to the ambitions, egos, and jealousies of the three; Caesar and Crassus were implicitly hand-in-glove, but Pompey disliked Crassus and grew increasingly envious of Caesar's spectacular successes in the Gallic War, whereby he annexed the whole of the Three Gauls to Rome.

Death of Crassus and Pompey

Julia's death during childbirth and Crassus's ignominious defeat and death at Carrhae at the hands of the Parthians in 53 BC effectively undermined the alliance. Pompey remained in Rome, governing his Spanish provinces through lieutenants, and remained in virtual control of the city throughout that time. He gradually drifted further and further from his alliance with Caesar, eventually marrying the daughter of Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius Cornelianus Scipio Nasica, one of the boni ("Good Men"), an archconservative faction of the Senate steadfastly opposed to Caesar. Pompey was elected consul without colleague in 52 BC, and took part in the politicking which led to Caesar's crossing of the Rubicon in 49 BC, starting the Civil War. Pompey was made commander-in-chief of the war by the Senate, and was defeated by his former ally Caesar at Pharsalus. Pompey's subsequent murder in Egypt in an inept political intrigue left Caesar sole master of the Roman world.

Family tree showing the relationship between the three members of the First Triumvirate, as well as their relationships with other prominent members of the Republic.

Responsibilities of Members

Caesar's job was to keep peace between Magnus and Crassus, make sure Magnus and Crassus got what they wanted, and to absolve any issues between them that might arise.

See also

• Constitution of the Roman Republic
• Triumvirate
• Second Triumvirate

External links

• Herodotuswebsite.co.uk - an article on how the First Triumvirate came into being. (Site no longer active, please refer to this link, accessed via the Wayback Machine)