The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters - PREVIEW： Epochs #191

00:00:00.220 Hello and welcome to another episode of Epochs, where once again I shall be continuing my

00:00:04.980 narrative of the decline and fall of the Roman Republic. If you remember last time, we left

00:00:10.180 off where Crassus had got himself killed out in the East. Julia had unfortunately died

00:00:15.780 in childbirth, as had the baby, very sadly. And so now, the showdown boiling away between

00:00:23.440 Pompey and Caesar, the final showdown. So, I'll let Appian continue the story. He says

00:00:30.680 this, quote, Now that Pompey had completed the reforms which required aristocratic power,

00:00:36.660 he made Scipio his colleague for the rest of the year. After this, others held the consulate

00:00:41.080 authority, but Pompey exercised an undiminished degree of supervision and control. See, that's

00:00:46.320 the thing I've said before, haven't I? In a republic, it's quite easy to subvert a republic

00:00:50.960 If you just have control of the leaders of the offices, then you don't need to hold

00:00:56.020 the office yourself. If they're in your pocket, one way or the other, if they're your creature,

00:01:00.220 then you don't even need to hold the office anymore. That is one of the problems with any

00:01:04.060 real democracy or any sort of open republic, anything like that. Unfortunately, that is

00:01:09.840 a perennial issue. Appian continues, Indeed, at that time, he, Pompey, was the only person

00:01:15.920 who mattered in Rome, as the Senate strongly favoured him, both because it resented Caesar

00:01:20.940 for ignoring it during his own consulship, and because he had promptly tackled the unhealthy

00:01:25.740 state of the republic without being troublesome or oppressive to any of its members. The exiles

00:01:31.300 flocked to Caesar and advised him to beware of Pompey because the law against bribery was

00:01:36.440 particularly aimed at himself. So, Rome really beginning to fracture into two camps, just two

00:01:43.720 factions. You're either with Pompey or you're with Caesar. Caesar reassured them and spoke

00:01:49.680 well of Pompey, but persuaded the tribunes to propose a law to permit him, Caesar, to stand

00:01:55.220 in absentia for a second consulship. This was passed without opposition while Pompey was still

00:02:00.520 consul. Caesar, however, expected that the Senate would make some move against him and was afraid

00:02:06.180 of becoming a private citizen at the mercy of his enemies. So, once again, there's that thread of

00:02:10.580 the story that if Caesar ever loses high office and becomes just a private citizen once again, Cato,

00:02:17.700 as well as many, many other enemies, but probably the leader of them, Cato, will just drag him through

00:02:23.020 the courts and ruin him. Either exile, probably not execution, but certainly exile and being ruined

00:02:30.760 financially and just end his political career. Because they've got Caesar on a number of things

00:02:36.680 now. The bribery he openly engaged in, although everyone's more or less openly engaging in it,

00:02:43.320 including Cato himself, if you go back and watch the Cato episodes once or twice. The bribery side of

00:02:49.000 things, but also Cato's talking about how Caesar's war against the Gauls is unjust, that it's a war of

00:02:56.360 aggression, that the Gauls didn't do nothing to Rome, and that Caesar was just engaging in this

00:03:01.720 sort of private war. And again, Cato sort of has a point, he's not entirely wrong, but of course it's

00:03:08.040 political, isn't it? He's going after any thread he can to prosecute Caesar, or would do if Caesar was

00:03:15.000 a private citizen. Appian continues,

00:03:17.240 Scheming, therefore, to retain power until he was elected consul, he requested the

00:03:23.000 Senate to grant him a small extension of his existing governorship of Gaul, or of part of Gaul.

00:03:28.520 When Marcellus, Pompe's successor as consul, blocked this, Caesar is said to have replied to the person

00:03:34.120 who brought him the news by tapping the hilt of his sword and saying, this will give me it.

00:03:39.000 Quite an aggressive gesture, if true. Now, most people agree, even Caesar's detractors, all agree,

00:03:47.800 to varying extents, that Caesar's being sort of painted into a corner. Well, he certainly doesn't

00:03:53.400 really have a choice but to try and retain high office, and therefore immunity from prosecution.

00:03:59.080 But if they keep forcing him, he won't have much other choice but resort to force. Or, you know,

00:04:06.200 allow himself to be destroyed. It's one or the other. Now, Cato and others, for many, many a year,

00:04:13.080 since the Catiline conspiracy, 10 years ago or more, people like Cato have been saying,

00:04:17.480 Caesar is a tyrant in waiting. He means to dominate Rome absolutely and be the only man of importance

00:04:22.840 in Rome. Well, it's becoming sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy. The more they block him,

00:04:27.880 the more they paint him into a corner, the more that's becoming true. Now, people that are fans of

00:04:32.520 Caesar or defend Caesar, they say, and I suppose I'm mildly in that camp, would say, well, you're not

00:04:40.280 leaving him any choice. You're not leaving him any choice though, so what's it going to be? I said in

00:04:46.120 my Cato episode, I think a lot of the reason that the Republic finally died, finally there was a civil

00:04:53.400 war, full-blown civil war, you can lay at the feet of Cato. If Cato had been able to bend one way or the

00:04:58.920 other, either let Pompey or Caesar be preeminent, it might not have come to a full civil war,

00:05:05.800 where thousands and thousands of Romans are killed, and the Republic does die, sort of undeniably.

00:05:12.520 I say undeniably, some people argue that he didn't really die at that point, but still,

00:05:17.400 most will say it's in and around this time frame. I want to cut back now to Pompey and what Plutarch

00:05:24.920 tells us in his life of Pompey about this period, or a little bit before what I just talked about,

00:05:30.760 how Pompey conducts himself whilst Caesar is still away, and Pompey is the preeminent man in Rome,

00:05:37.960 how he conducts himself. So Plutarch says this, quote,

00:05:40.920 Pompey did, in fact, once say in a speech to the people that he had always come into office

00:05:46.280 earlier than he had expected, and had always laid down his offices more quickly than others had

00:05:52.200 expected, and certainly he could always point to the way in which he had disbanded his armies

00:05:58.200 to prove the truth of this. Yeah, Pompey really isn't a Sulla type tyrant. He really never really

00:06:04.120 planned to do what Caesar did, crossing the Rubicon and sparking off a civil war. When he returned from

00:06:09.640 the east after his final success against Mithridates and or against the pirates, he could have entered Rome

00:06:17.000 like a Sulla, and by force just made himself the absolute undisputed ruler, a king in all but name.

00:06:24.760 He could have done it after that as well, when he sort of invested the city of Rome with troops

00:06:29.400 in his second consulship with Crassus, in order to defeat the Populares and restore order after

00:06:35.640 Clodius was murdered. He could have done it then as well, just become a Sulla, but he didn't. It seems

00:06:41.480 like it's fair, I think it's fair to say, it's not really in his character. That's not what he wanted

00:06:45.080 to do. I mean, it's not what Caesar wanted to do. Later, Caesar says in a letter to Cicero,

00:06:51.160 once the war had kicked off, he says to Cicero, look, if I'm going to win this thing, the civil

00:06:55.160 war's happened now, it's happening. In order, if I'm going to win this thing, I'm going to do it

00:06:59.320 through mercy and clemency. The only other way to go is to be a Sulla, and I'm not going to do that.

00:07:05.480 I refuse to do that, i.e. round up a few thousand of his political enemies, Roman citizens, senators

00:07:11.720 and things, and just have them all killed. Caesar doesn't do that. He never does that. So neither

00:07:17.720 Pompey nor Caesar are a Sulla, and yet it still comes to civil war. Plutarch continues talking

00:07:25.080 explicitly about Pompey. Apart from this, he took no exceptional or revolutionary measures. He tried to

00:07:31.640 give the impression not of distrusting Caesar, but rather of tolerating him and not taking him

00:07:37.320 seriously. He soon saw, however, that since the citizens were bribed, the magistracies were not

00:07:43.480 going at all the way he wished, and he allowed a state of affairs to come into existence where there

00:07:48.600 was no government at all. People at once began to talk of the necessity of a dictatorship, and the

00:07:53.560 tribune Lucilius first ventured to bring the subject forward, openly advising the people to choose

00:07:59.800 Pompey as dictator. This proposal was attacked by Cato, because remember Cato's whole idea is that

00:08:06.280 there should be no single man, even if it's Pompey. Cato, obviously, and as the story goes on you'll see,

00:08:12.120 would much prefer Pompey if there has to be one man at the top. He much, much, much prefer Pompey. He hates

00:08:18.040 Caesar, but still he doesn't want Pompey either. He doesn't want anyone, any single man. That's the whole

00:08:24.120 idea of the Roman Republic and having two consoles that only rule for one year. So he doesn't want

00:08:30.440 Pompey either. So this proposal was attacked by Cato, and Lucilius very nearly lost his tribuneship.

00:08:37.240 While on Pompey's behalf, many of his friends came forward and stated that he neither asked

00:08:42.840 nor wanted to be dictator. Cato then made a speech congratulating Pompey and urging him to support the

00:08:48.600 cause of law and order. So Cato, you can imagine, through gritted teeth, much to his own chagrin,

00:08:55.000 will back Pompey, if it comes to it. If it's a choice of lesser evils, Cato goes with Pompey.

00:09:01.560 As a result of this moral pressure, Pompey, for the time being, did so, and Domitius and Masala

00:09:08.120 were made consuls. Later, however, Rome was again without a government, and people began to be still

00:09:13.560 more outspoken in agitating for a dictatorship. Cato and his party, because remember Cato represents

00:09:19.960 a whole party, a big powerful faction, arguably the biggest optimate faction of the senatorial order.

00:09:28.120 Cato and his party, fearing that they might be forced to give way to this agitation, decided to

00:09:33.160 let Pompey have a kind of office which was defined by law, so as to keep him out of the absolute power

00:09:39.000 and authority, which would be his as a dictator. So Bibulus, who is Cato's creature and relation by

00:09:46.200 marriage, who was no friend to Pompey, first proposed to the senate that Pompey should be

00:09:51.320 chosen as sole consul. In this way, he said, Rome would either be saved from the present state of

00:09:56.600 anarchy or, if subjected, would at least be subject to her ableist citizen. So again, the lesser of two

00:10:03.320 evils is their calculation. The proposal, coming from Bibulus, seems strange enough. Cato then rose to

00:10:09.480 speak, and led everyone to expect that he would speak against it. But when silence was made for him,

00:10:15.320 he said that he personally would not have proposed the motion before the house, but now that it had been

00:10:20.440 proposed by someone else, he recommended them to adopt it, since, in his view, any government was better

00:10:25.980 than none, and he thought that Pompey, in such disturbed times, was likely to govern better than anyone else.

00:10:31.860 The senate accepted the proposal and decreed that Pompey, if elected consul, should hold the office

00:10:37.180 alone, but that if he himself should desire a colleague, he should be empowered, after the expiry of two

00:10:43.080 months, to choose whomsoever he saw fit. So Cato realises he has to back one of the horses, Pompey or Caesar,

00:10:50.780 and it would never, ever be Caesar. Never. Ever since the Catiline conspiracy, Cato despised Caesar. So even

00:10:58.360 though he's not a natural bedfellar of Pompey, he's got to back one of the horses, so it is Pompey.

00:11:03.680 Plutarch goes on. In this way, Pompey became consul, and was declared so by Sulpicius. Pompey then made

00:11:10.160 friendly overtures to Cato, expressing his great gratitude to him for what he had done, and invited

00:11:15.660 him to give advice in a private capacity on how the government should be run. Cato, however, would not

00:11:21.080 admit that Pompey had any reason to be grateful to him. His speech, he said, had been made entirely in the

00:11:26.500 interests of Rome, and not at all for Pompey's sake. As for advice, he was quite prepared to give it,

00:11:32.060 if asked, in a private capacity, and if he were not asked, he would certainly say what he thought

00:11:37.620 in public. That was typical of Cato, end quote. Yeah, absolutely, that's typical of Cato. Being

00:11:43.860 difficult, it seems, when there's no real need to be. Classic Cato. If you haven't watched them,

00:11:49.700 I do advise, go back and watch my few episodes on Cato. Okay, Plutarch again. Pompey now entered

00:11:57.560 Rome and married Cornelia, a daughter of Metellius Scipio. Again, rebuffing any idea that he would

00:12:04.180 remarry into Caesar's family. She was not a virgin, but had recently been left a widow by her first

00:12:10.180 husband, Publius, the son of Crassus, who had been killed in Parthia. If you remember, his head

00:12:16.220 paraded before the old Crassus, the Crassus. Horrible thing. The young woman had many charming

00:12:23.000 qualities, apart from her youth and beauty. She had a great knowledge of literature, of playing the

00:12:28.000 liar, and of geometry, and she was a regular and intelligent listener to lectures on philosophy.

00:12:34.080 Moreover, her character was quite free of that gracelessness and pretentiousness, which too often

00:12:40.000 affect young women who possess such accomplishments. No fault could be found with her father's family or

00:12:45.780 reputation. Nevertheless, there were some who disapproved of the marriage because of the

00:12:50.460 disparity in years. Again, she was much younger than Pompey. Pompey's getting on a bit now.

00:12:57.400 Pompey also came in for some criticism for neglecting his responsibilities to the city

00:13:01.960 at such a time. Rome had chosen him as her physician and put herself into his sole charge,

00:13:08.800 yet here he was with garlands on his head celebrating a wedding, when he ought to have considered

00:13:13.700 that his very consulship was a public calamity, since it would never have been given to him

00:13:18.660 in such an illegal way if his country had been prosperous. Then there was his conduct in presiding

00:13:24.240 over the courts dealing with bribery and corruption, and introducing laws regulating the procedure at

00:13:30.180 the trials. Here, in general, his behaviour as an arbiter was dignified and beyond reproach. His presence

00:13:36.780 in the courts, with an armed force, had the effect of making the courtroom safe, orderly, and quiet.

00:13:42.840 Yet when his father-in-law, Scipio, was put on trial, he summoned the 360 members of the jury to his own

00:13:49.420 house and asked them to acquit the defendant, and the prosecutor abandoned the case when he saw Scipio

00:13:55.180 being escorted out of the forum by the jury. So once again, Pompey found that he was being badly

00:14:00.520 spoken of. Things became still worse when, after he had passed a law putting an end to the practice of

00:14:06.120 making speeches in praise of people under trial, he himself came into court to make a speech in praise

00:14:11.860 of Plankus. Cato happened to be a member of the jury on this occasion, and he clapped his hands over

00:14:17.240 his ears, saying that it was not right for him to listen to these speeches of praise when they were

00:14:22.200 illegal. As a result, Cato was removed from the jury before he had the chance of voting, but nevertheless,

00:14:28.240 Plankus was convicted by the other votes, much to the discredit of Pompey. A few days afterwards,

00:14:34.740 Hypatius, a man of consular rank, who had been prosecuted in the courts, waited for Pompey to

00:14:40.000 return from his bath to his supper, and then fell down before him, clasping his knees and imploring

00:14:46.460 him for help. But Pompey passed by him disdainfully and said that, apart from spoiling his supper,

00:14:52.120 he was achieving nothing. This gave him the reputation of being anything but impartial,

00:14:57.740 and he was much blamed for it. In other respects, however, he did well and succeeded in getting the

00:15:03.080 situation under control. For the last five months of his year of office, he chose his father-in-law

00:15:08.420 to be his colleague. It was also voted that he should keep his provinces for another period of

00:15:13.100 four years, and that he should receive 1,000 talents each year for the payment and general

00:15:18.060 organisation of his armies." So once again, Pompey's not a king in all but name, he's not pulling a

00:15:25.560 sulla, but he is riding roughshod over the rule of law in all sorts of ways, and fiddling with the

00:15:34.180 system in fairly clearly illegal ways, being a little bit haughty, and the whole of Rome isn't

00:15:42.620 behind him. The people love him, by and large, but he is making enemies, certainly. But yeah,

00:15:49.460 even though he isn't a king in all but name, he is the power in Rome. I'll let Plutarch continue.

00:15:55.220 He says this, quote,

00:15:56.700 It was this that gave occasion to some of Caesar's friends to claim that for Caesar II, who was fighting

00:16:03.140 so continuously for the empire, some consideration ought to be shown. Either, they said, he ought to

00:16:08.680 have another consulship, or else his command ought to be prolonged, so that he who had done the work

00:16:14.340 should continue in power and enjoy his honours in peace, instead of being deprived of all his glory

00:16:19.800 by some successor who might be appointed. There was a conflict of opinion over this, and Pompey,

00:16:25.400 giving the impression that out of goodwill to Caesar he was trying to calm down any ill feeling that

00:16:30.420 might exist towards him, said that he had letters from Caesar which showed that he wanted to be relieved

00:16:35.360 of his command and be replaced by a successor. It would be only right, however, that he should be

00:16:40.460 allowed to stand for the consulship even in his absence. Cato and his party opposed this suggestion.

00:16:46.760 Caesar, they said, must lay down his arms and become an ordinary citizen before securing any favour

00:16:52.140 from his fellow citizens. Pompey raised no great objections to this, but behaved rather as though he

00:16:58.160 had been overruled, and as a result increased people's suspicions of what his real feelings towards

00:17:04.040 Caesar were. He also sent to Caesar and, on the pretext of the Parthian War, asked for the return

00:17:10.120 of the troops which he had lent him. Caesar knew well enough why these soldiers were being asked for,

00:17:16.160 but he sent them back after having given them very generous rewards for their services."

00:17:20.740 So Caesar, of course, is absolutely no fool. He knows the way it's going. He knows that his

00:17:27.640 offers of a further marriage after Julia were rebuffed, and that Pompey isn't doing absolutely

00:17:33.400 everything in his power to shore up Caesar's position in his absence, as he was doing earlier

00:17:39.240 on during the first triumvirate when Crassus was still alive. Pompey's not doing that anymore.

00:17:44.780 Caesar sees this. Everyone sort of knows the way it's going, and Pompey asking for those couple of

00:17:49.800 legions back. Caesar knows why that would be. You know, it's pretty much a zero-sum game. There's a

00:17:55.560 finite number of legions. So if Caesar has two less and Pompey has two more, well, if it came to blows,

00:18:02.280 if it came to blows, then Pompey is going to want, even need those legions. But Caesar,

00:18:11.320 wily as ever, makes sure he rewards and pays those soldiers, and that's no small detail. Soldiers,

00:18:18.040 nearly always, certainly in this period of the late Republic, will be much more loyal to the guy that

00:18:23.720 actually pays them, or even sometimes Caesar overpaid them. They're much more likely to remain loyal to that

00:18:30.120 general, to that person, kind of obviously. Caesar's been described many a time as a soldier's soldier,

00:18:37.160 as a soldier's general, and that nearly all legions that ever fought under Caesar are very,

00:18:42.120 very loyal to him, again, as a result of the Marian reforms.

00:18:54.440 of

The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters - December 23, 2024

PREVIEW： Epochs #191 ｜ Pompey & Caesar： Part XVI

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