First Triumvirate
The
First Triumvirate is the name historians give to the unofficial political alliance of
Gaius Julius Caesar,
Marcus Licinius Crassus, and
Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus. Unlike the somewhat less famous "
Second Triumvirate", the First Triumvirate had no official status whatsoever – its overwhelming power in the Roman state was strictly unofficial influence – and was in fact kept secret for some time as part of the political machinations of the Triumviri themselves. It formed in 60 BC and lasted until
Crassus's death in 53 BC.
Crassus and Pompey had been colleagues (they had always despised each other) in the
consulate for
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 powers 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 the best of friends, 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 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 which 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
Marcus Porcius Cato, both adamant opponents of the Triumviri.
The Triumvirate proceeded to make further arrangements for itself. Caesar was awarded the government as
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
Spains
(Hispania Citerior and
Hispania Ulterior) and of
Syria, respectively, for five-year terms.
The alliance had allowed the Triumviri 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 entirety of modern
France to Rome.
Julia's death during childbirth and Crassus's ignominious defeat and death at
Carrhae at the hands of the
Parthians in
53 BC seriously undermined the alliance.
Pompey remained in
Rome – he governed 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.
*
Triumvirate*
Second Triumvirate*
Herodotuswebsite.co.uk - an article on how the First Triumvirate came into being.
