Recently watched HBO's Rome and I'm intrigued in all of this. I have a few questions regarding the First Triumvirate and the events that eventually led to Caesar declaring himself as the Dictator of Rome.
In the show, it only focused on the tension between Caesar and Pompey with little to no mention of Crassus. How important was Crassus? What was his role in the "agreement" between the three? Was he ever as "big" as Caesar and Pompey? What was his relationship with Caesar like vs his relationship with Pompey? Why did he invade Parthia(?) and what were the consequences of that invasion?
I know that Caesar and Pompey eventually came to blow against one another but I want to know in details why did they decided to fight each other in the end. Was the Republic backing of Pompey is only reason that he came to blow vs Caesar? What were the events that led to tension between the two? Did this tension cause any harm to the Republic?
Although the three men ruled "unofficially", how did the Romans feel about the First Triumvirate? Was the Romans more patriotic towards the Republic? Or were they largely following their leaders (Caesar, Pompey and Crassus)?
Why was it that Caesar became so popular with the people? What did he do to gain that popularity? Did the Republic view it as a threat? Did Caesar "utilize or manipulate" the popularity to gain more control over time? Did Caesar have any important "influence" in the Republic or was he viewed as "enemy of the state"?
When Caesar finally defeated Pompey, was it obvious that he would march to Rome and declare himself a Dictator? Was there any important events inbetween the final victory vs Pompey and the march to Rome? How did the people feel (what was their morale) when Caesar became the Dictator?
I know that it's a long post and there are like 249 questions in there, but I don't want to make too many posts asking questions about pretty much the "same topic". Ultimately, I want to know how did the unofficial agreement between the so-called First Triumvirate and what important events led to the "temporary" fall of the Republic with Caesar rose to power as the dictator.
*If you have any good sources, please include them in your posts because I'd like to read more about it.
I can shed some light on Crassus. Once Sulla came into power after his war with Marius, Crassus, who had always been loyal to Sulla, got put in charge of Sulla's proscriptions. That is to say, Crassus was in charge of killing all of Sulla's political enemies. And when you purge thousands of rich senators and patricians you ultimately get lots and lots of money. This is where Crassus comes in. In order to restore his seized wealth, Crassus would get rich members of the aristocracy killed by simply telling Sulla that while he was in exile they were Marian supporters. Thousands of people were killed in the post social war purges and Crassus got very very rich by inheriting their wealth. He was also in charge of one of the first fire brigades in Rome. When he saw a house burning he would approach the owner and tell them that he would put the fire out only if the owners would sign over their house to Crassus. He made huge sums of money buying burning property at extraordinarily low prices and was also one of the biggest slave traders of his time. He soon became one of the richest men in history. Not just in Roman times, we're talkin' in the history of the world.
During Sulla's reign, Crassus and Pompey "the Great"(guess who gave Pompey that nickname BTW) became fierce rivals because of Pompey's various military victories in the civil war, the East and against pirates in the Mediterranean. It wasn't the fact that Pompey was victorious, it was the fact that Crassus was always looking for a military triumph and Pompey, it seemed without lifting a finger, had won battle after battle and he wasn't afraid to tell everyone about his many victories.
Crassus had all of the wealth in the world, he had a successful career in politics, he was one of the most famous people in all of Rome. But he never could boast a great military victory. So when Spartacus' revolt came around he did just that. He routed the last of Spartacus' forces and wiped them out. Spartacus was defeated! Crassus would finally be able to have a triumph. Or not. Turns out that there was a small force of Spartacus' left who had deserted before the final battle took place. It also turns out that Pompey decided he wanted a taste of battle. Pompey ran into the remaining troops and claimed victory against Spartacus and took all of the credit for ending the revolt. Crassus was completely livid and he and Pompey's relationship got even worse. It also wasn't helped by the fact that Pompey became consul at an unheard of age of 35. This made Crassus even more livid because he shot up the ladder of success at such a young age. He also served his first consulship with, you guessed it, Crassus. Fast forward to the First Triumvirate and your question about Cassius whereabouts. Well, like I said, he was always trying to gain a great military victory. He believed his victory against Spartacus was spoiled by Pompey so he looked East towards one of Rome's most staunch rivals: The Parthian Empire.
At this time Crassus was in his sixties and he was pretty impatient. Impatient enough to spurn an offer by the Armenian King to go through his lands in order to bypass the harsh deserts of Parthia and he even offered to supply Cassius with thousands of more men and cavalry. Again, he said "fuck that noise, I have plenty of men and not enough time." So he goes through the desert to meet the Parthian military. He was then led deep into the desert by a man who he trusted but was really on the payroll of the Parthians. So here Crassus is, deep in the desert, with no water and no food and suddenly he gets attacked by a small contingency of Parthians. Long story short, he gets completely fucking owned by this small Parthian Army who was really only supposed to slow Crassus down until the real battle began (funny story, the Armenian King from earlier was getting owned by the real Parthian military at the same time and right before this battle began he actually sent Crassus a letter asking for help that Crassus ignored). Well, Crassus' son dies, he retreats, leaving thousands of wounded on the battlefield and then he gets killed. He also gets his Legionary Eagles captured which is a supreme fucking deal. It's the ultimate dishonor in Roman culture and it brought fantastic shame on every citizen of Rome. So, instead of leading a fierce Roman Army to a great military victory, he gets shit on, killed, and brings great dishonor to his countrymen.
So after Crassus died the Triumvirate was quickly disbanded (Caeser's wife, Julia's death also expedited things) and Pompey and Caeser went to war. Sorry for going on a long tangent but this shit is awesome.
Yeah, and I just saw your question again and I didn't answer it. Crassus was the link between Caeser and Pompey. Caeser and Crassus were old friends and Crassus was a very important figure in Rome at the time. If there was no Crassus then there would have been no Triumvirate because nobody would have taken Caeser seriously. I mean, this is a guy who was run out of town and was only just beginning to come back into prominence. Crassus was the pocketbook and the face that everyone knew. Pompey was the great military hero that everyone loved. Caeser was the brain. He was the one that everybody knew would be great.
Wow, this is a lot. I'm sure a couple other users will fill in each question, and I'll try to answer some later, but I want to make sure you know the context under which Caesar and Pompey fought one another, and that was under the shadows of Marius and Sulla.
Marius was Casear's uncle by marriage, and was a famed leader who held consul seven times. However, during the aftermath of the Social War in 88BCE, he and Sulla, a former lieutenant of his and a rising star, came to blows over the command of a war in Asia, and Sulla marched on Rome to secure it and drive Marius out. After he left, Marius returned, took power, and promptly died. His partisans and Sulla's clashed, and a great loss of life occured within the city. In 83/82BCE, Sulla returned and crushed the Marian faction, and instituted huge proscriptions that purged a great number of men from Rome (including forcing Julius Caesar, at this time a young man, to flee). Sulla completely reworked the governmental system by shifting power to the Senate almost completely, and neutering both the assemblies and the Tribune of the Plebs, as well as instituted legal age requirements for the cursus honorum. Basically the system in which Cicero and Caesar both came to power was this reworked one. So, from this conflict, we have three main drastic impacts.
First, was Marius's being basically erased from history, but remaining a very popular figure (he was, after all, elected seven times to a position few men gained once). It was not long after Caesar returned to Rome that he utilized Marius's memory to drum up support for himself.
Second, we have the impact of Sulla's constitution, which by most appraisals was woefully inadequate in containing the ambition of men like Caesar, and indeed, was slowly dismembered almost as soon as Sulla stepped down from power and retired (he was clearly aping Cincinnatus here).
Finally, we have the very real prospect of civil war that had begun with the Social War, and come right to Rome's heart in Sulla's invasions and purges of Rome. In 150BCE, killing a Tribune of the plebs was unthinkable. By 120, it was already a fact. In 100 BCE, war between Romans and Italians was unthinkable; by 90 BCE it was a fact. In 90 BCE, Romans killing Romans was unthinkable, by 80BCE, it was a fact. All these events (but particularly the last two) laid the ground work for the type of civil war that characterized Caesar's last years, as well as his successors.