Julius Caesar- Fame and Fate Part Eight

A further gift was that the consulships of Appius and Domitius had ended with the two men accused of taking bribes to fix the upcoming consular elections. The corruption seemed to be endemic. The four candidates standing for election had all been indicted. The elections were postponed for six months. Particularly embarrassed was Domitius-who had supposedly exemplified senatorial respectability. Cicero said of Domitius' consular colleague Appius, that he didn't even have a reputation to lose. The crisis deepened to the point that citizens all over the Republic began saying Pompey should be made dictator. Cato was enraged by the very thought of this and Pompey made a show of turning down the offer. However, the tension and the murmurings would not die down. This was a godsend to Pompey who could make a show of looking modest and waiting for the right moment. Cato wanted a strong contender for consul who could stem the tide of pro-Pompey support. He made the decision to support a once ardent partisan of Pompey that was now disaffected after being jettisoned by his former patron. This unfortunately reignited a vicious blood feud between Milo-Cato's man and Pompey's former protege and a man from a wealthy and extemely aristocratic family named Publius Clodius.

The two men had been involved in gang warfare with each other in 58 BC, when Milo had indicted Clodius for employing violence when he had been in office as a tribune. Anarchy was closing in on Rome as 53 BC ended. For the third time in four years elections were postponed. When Milo and Clodius-along with their heavies-met on the Appian Way on 18 January 52 BC, the anarchy worsened. This was because Clodius had been killed in the violence. Before and during his year as a tribune of the people Clodius had played the role of "defender" of the poor to the hilt, which was nothing more than a political stunt. It was a stunt that had worked very well though, and as news of his death spread to the slums wails of grief could be heard. The violence kept on escalating and the Senate House was burned to the ground and once again the Forum was lit an ominous red color. The fire from the Senate had spread and destroyed a neighboring monument-the Basilica Porcia. This is where Rome's first permanent law court had been built by an ancestor of Cato. Now Pompey's time had come. As much as Cato loathed the idea, his thoughts were that any type of government was better than the savagery of the anarchy that was spreading. Cato had proposed a compromise that stopped short of making Pompey an actual dictator. This idea would have Pompey instead serving as sole consul for a year. The Senate met in Pompey's theater and asked him to save the Republic.

The legions of Pompey restored order to Rome in less than a month and Milo was sent into exile. Cato himself acknowledged that Pompey had done a good job, although with his usual gruff manner. Caesar must have been glad he had yet another familial marriage proposal to make, this time to his great-niece Octavia. This time however, Pompey declined the offer. He didn't do this to end his alliance with Caesar but to show that he couldn't be taken for granted. Also, now that Pompey had senatorial respect there were offers that could provide him with more prestige than any connections of Julius Caesar. When Publius Crassus had died with his father at Carrhae, he left behind his beautiful and cultured wife Cornelia. Cornelia was also intimately connected with a great number of patrician families and she was a descendent of Scipio-the general who had defeated Hannibal and captured Carthage. When the two married Pompey was connected to the very heart of the aristocracy. There was also a little bit of revenge for Pompey in the marriage pact. Cato, who had once decided he was unworthy of his nieces hand, had himself been jilted by Cornelia's mother! Pompey was finally able to bask in what Cicero described as his "abilities and good fortune, which have enabled him to achieve what nobody else could have ever done." The question was-how long would this newfound peace last?

The image is a statue of Cato contemplating suicide in the Louvre museum. The statue was started by one artist and completed by another. Sometimes having insomnia helps in that there is always work to do for my blogs! I hope to have the next post here very soon. Peace and be well to anyone stopping by! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cato_the_Younger

Julius Caesar- Fame and Fate Part Seven

Citizens had gone to the polls only weeks after Pompey had staged his games in September 55 BC. They voted with his theater complex rising like a small mountain in the background and delivered a blow to his prestige. In the previous year Pompey had been able to block the candidacies of Cato and Domitius Ahenobarbus. Now for the year 54 BC both men were elected to magistracies. Domitius as consul and Cato as praetor. One ally of Pompey, Appius Claudius, was elected to the consulship, but Appius could not be counted on as a reliable ally, he was more a "see which way the wind is blowing" type. Even though Pompey had conquered nations and built his grandiose theater, Appius had very aristocratic blood in his veins-and this in his opinion counted for much more. In the uncertain see-saw world of Roman politics Pompey was a man who at this point in his life should have been able to bask in the glow of power and glory. This election, however, showed him how tenuous and fleeting these desires could be in the late Republic-really for all of Roman history. Any reasonable standard would place him as the "first citizen" of the Republic. Pompey had just finished his second consulship. He was the governor of Spain and the commander of its army. And hadn't his generosity to Rome and her citizens been like the gift of a beneficient god?

But poor Pompey the Great-the more he tried to secure his power and position-the more they seemed to slip away from him. Every step he took to secure preeminence was accompanied by a step backwards. Even though Pompey's behavior was criminal in some of the methods he used to attain power (in the late Republic whose wasn't?), he had no desire to be another Sulla. The consulships of both Domitius and Appius, who were well known for their arrogance didn't hold much promise for a man of Pompey's somewhat insecure nature. As always, second to Crassus, the greatest thorn in his side was Cato, who would now be praetor for a year. But Cato's praetorship was nothing compared to his stature in the Senate. This infuriating, stubborn man didn't even have a rank officially as the equal of a consul. He didn't command any legions or have enough wealth to bribe the electorate or his fellow legislators. However, Cato's real power was about equal to Caesar or Pompey himself. Cato, with his staunch, unyielding principles and beliefs had become the exemplar of legitimacy through the years-almost to the point of becoming the embodiment of the Republic itself. Even if senators were taking bribes from Caesar in Gaul, Crassus or Pompey-they still identified themselves with Cato.

Julius Caesar perhaps could laugh about Cato's or any other senator's pretensions, but Pompey still very much wanted Cato's approval and did not. Pompey did indeed intimidate the establishment, but he still wanted to win its heart. This was perhaps another difference in the personalities of Julius Caesar and Pompey that led to an outcome that by rights should have gone in favor of Pompey. Pompey had been adored most of his life and still craved the love and respect of his fellow citizens. Julius Caesar wanted love also perhaps-but was more than willing when the last card was down-or more appropriately the last die were thrown-to settle for just being respected. In August 54 BC, Pompey's beloved wife Julia, Caesar's daughter, went into labor and miscarried. This time she did not survive the loss of her baby. Both Caesar and Pompey grieved equally over her loss. The death of Julia also threatened Caesar's political position, for he was still busy fighting in Gaul. There would be a short time the men would share in their grief. However, Pompey was now Rome's most eligible bachelor and when he remarried it could bring him into a new political alliance. With Crassus still in the alliance though, the men's power still balanced out pretty evenly, because one of the men couldn't take on the other two. But within a year of Julia's death news came in from Carrhae that Crassus was dead. This definitely shifted power in Pompey's favor and also excised a bitter prescence from his life. The image is a statue of Pompey-probably much romanticized in its physical form. I hope to have the next post here soon. I am caught up with information I have in written form so it might take two to three days, again I apologize for the backtracking. I wouldn't be doing it if I didn't think it was important to the story, "What If " questions and interesting in and of itself. Peace and be well to anyone stopping by!

Julius Caesar- Fame and Fate Part Six

Pompey was perhaps preoccupied with the always jealous Crassus, who in 55 BC would have been preparing for his war against the Parthians. No one looking at the situation could have blamed Pompey for feeling extremely confident and powerful. In 55 his magnificent theater had been complete on the Campus Martius. This was the most gargantuan complex of buildings in Rome's history, and the Roman people were awestruck when it was revealed to them. These buildings were surrounded by a beautiful park. The great theater not only had an auditorium, but a public portico, a chamber for the Senate and a new house for Pompey himself. Wisely, Pompey had all of this surmounted by a temple to Venus. Not only was the temple used to justify the building of the whole complex, but Pompey also hoped that her temple would prevent current and future men jealous of his success from leveling this great work of architecture. The whole complex could be thought of as an egotistical monument to Pompey himself and the mere sight of its wonders was enough to provoke awe and jealousy in friend and foe alike. Rare plants, lovely statues and paintings, curtains woven with gold in the portico between the columns and great numbers of fountains all made Pompey's incredible theater the most romantic place in Rome.

Pompey had truly spared no expense or let any budgets constrain him. The paintings and statues were all masterpieces selected by the connoiseur Atticus and a board of experts. The most imposing thing of all about Rome's greatest new piece of real estate was the specially commissioned statue of Pompey himself. The great statue had been placed in the new Senate House, and now even when Pompey was not in Rome his shadow could fall over the senatorial proceedings. Pompey had decided that by the time his theater was completed that his globetrotting days were over. Hadn't he done enough? He had triumphed over three continents. Of course, he had no intention of giving up his command or the legions that came with it. He instead planned to govern Spain through subordinates. It was well and good for Caesar to continue fighting the Gauls and for Crassus to be preparing to fight the Parthians, but it was time for Pompey to stay home and enjoy his triumphs among his fellow Roman citizens. In a very real way Pompey the Great decided to bring his triumphal "trophies" to Rome. The accomplishments of Pompey would be to a very large extent represented by the exotic wildlife he had encountered as a conquering general. Much earlier in his life when he was in Africa he had stated, "Even the wild animals that live in Africa should be taught to respect the strength and courage of the Roman people." (Plutarch, Pompey, 12.).

The example of these wild animals was not only to entertain, but also to demonstrate to Romans the courage, strength and skill it took to become the masters of the world. This is why animals were rarely kept in zoos. Only when beast was matched against human could the lesson be taught. On one occasion, at least, the citizens didn't like what they saw and heard. An unheard of number of elephants-20-had been attacked by spearmen during a show at his theater. The elephant's cries and trumpetings of their pain and terror were so haunting to the spectators that everyone in the theater began to weep. Pliny the Elder reports that instead of cheering "the general and the lavish display which he had laid on especially to honor them, they rose to their feet, and through their tears, called down curses upon his head." What had gone wrong? Fourteen marble statues, each representing a nation conquered by Pompey, gazed down at the bloodbath in the arena with their unseeing eyes. Perhaps added to the sad calls of distress the elephants had made, the citizens had also realized that this carnage on display was not really there to glorify Rome herself, but was an orgy of self-glorification for Pompey. The image is a computer model of what Pompey's theater would have looked like. I hope to have the next post here very soon, sorry to be doing a bit of back-tracking at the moment. I just thought these details were to important to the overall history to leave out. Peace and be well to anyone stopping by!

Empires: Rome - The Playboy & The General Part Seven

Finally, after chasing after other anti-Marian alliances around the Meditteranean, young Crassus had sailed to Greece and became an ally of Sulla. There was, however, even one who outshone Crassus in Sulla's eyes. Gnaeus Pompeius had also raised a private army, and this army had won a series of brilliant victories over the Marian forces who were blocking Sulla's path to power. When the two met they greeted each other as Imperator-or General. This was a title that usually took an accomplished soldier many years to earn. Gnaeus Pompeius-"Pompey" was twenty-three years old. He had inherited the largest private estate in Italy from his father, the deceitful Pompeius Strabo. As the young man had apparently attempted to court Cinna also, before Sulla's arrival, perhaps he had also inherited his father's penchant for switching sides. It must also be said that Gnaeus Pompeius had no personal squabble with the Marians and the mutiny in Cinna's camp could have shown the young man who was the better 'deal.' Pompey had a gift for knowing where the most bountiful opportunities were.

Both Pompey and Crassus realized that they had been given an incredible opportunity to move up the ladder much faster than their fathers. The civil war had completely upended the chessboard of the politcal game. Pompey's enemies referred to him as "Adulescentulus carnifex"-or teenage butcher. To the Romans the passions of youth were violent and dangerous, and they thought only discipline and custom could control them. With Roman society in such an uproar and the rules of the game changing so rapidly-who could rein the young men in? Sulla was not going to be a good role model as far as teaching young men to control their violence. In order to paint a picture of himself as defender of Rome and not her oppressor, apparently Sulla induced one last uprising from the Samnites. Samnium and Campania were again looted and pillaged without any restraint and the Samnites were butchered wherever they could be found. The Samnites had joined the Marians as their cause was just about to fall. By 83 BC, after a year of civil war one consul had fled to Italy for the safety of Africa, while the younger Marius who was the other consul, was backed up into the hill town of Praeneste-which was twenty-five miles east of Rome!

The Samnites had begun a last ditch effort to wipe out Rome. They had started to mass before the Colline Gate on the northeastern wall of the city. The fighting started by the early afternoon and went long into the night. Once the fighting was over the victory was final. Sulla's enemies had no more armies left in Italy to continue the war. The bloodbath at the Colline Gate made Sulla the absolute unchallenged master of Rome. 3,000 prisoners were taken at the Colline Gate and were joined with other Samnites who had already been taken captive on the Campus Martius-a flood plain that stretched north beyond the walls of the Capitol. It was here that as far back as the kings, civilians had to come to take the oath that would make them soldiers. Campus Martius meant the Plain of Mars who was the god of war. Also here they were ranked in a strict hierarchy of wealth and status. At the top were those wealthy enough to buy their own horses, the equites. Below the equestrian class were five further classes of infantry. At the bottom were those citizens to poor to by a slingshot-the proletarii. These seven classes were further divided into units called centuries. This arrangement helped the class system to be promulgated with great intricacy. It also encouraged citizens to want to climb the ladder of success.

If you became an equestrian membership in the Senate became a possibility. If you were able to join the Senate the very tempting prospect of becoming a senior magistrate-a praetor or even a consul might become a reality. The Ovile or "sheepfold" was on the Campus Martius. This was a structure with barriers and aisles, very similar to the kind used to house livestock-thus its name. The Ovile was where the elections to the magistracies would be held, and the voters would be herded into different blocs. The organization of these blocs varied from election to election in a confusing fashion. The voting system was very heavily weighted in favor of the wealthier members of society. In fact, different things s skewed the results in favor of the rich that there was often little point in the other classes even turning out. However, for those citizens wealthy enough to get election fever, the excitement of voting day was one if not the greatest of Roman civic life. There was another building set back a bit from the Ovile called the Villa Publica, it was a walled complex of government buildings. This is where Sulla had the Samnite captives brought. They were in a beautifully adorned two story reception hall. This hall was appointed so magnificently because it was where the censors would collate data every five years that showed where a citizen stood in the labyrinth of Roman society. Every five years a citizen had to register himself there. Everything from the name of his wife, the number of his children, slaves-all the way down to his liquid cash and his wife's jewels and clothes had to be registered and reviewed there. As far as prestige went, Romans considered the censorship even greater than the consulship. The duties of a censor were considered so sensitive that only the most senior and reputable citizens could be entrusted with them.

The image is a painting called The Last Day of Pompeii by Briullov. For anyone reading this blog -I still have a pretty good sized amount of info to type out-but there is a lot of work yet to be done! I almost wanted to rush to the ending of the Caesar-Cleopatra-Antony-Octavian story, but the book I am using for nearly all of this research -Tom Holland's, RVBICON-published in 2003 by Doubleday in the United States is so excellent that it makes me want to include as much as I can. I can only do so much as everything I do needs to be written on notebook paper before typing it-and I am a poor typist and my fingers get sore from writing-so I would highly suggest to anyone that can buy this book to buy it-I am definitely going to find a way to get it. Dr. Holland has written a book that I think even a person with abolutely NO interest in history would find fascinating. Dr Holland earned the highest degree at Cambridge and then went on to get his PhD from Oxford so he knows his stuff to say the least! After I find a way to beg someone to buy me this book (yes I know I am pathetic-and poor:-). I will still be very happy with this series because of an entirely accidental find with a discount book (yes I actually own a few instead of library) that asks some questions about our characters that I don't want to give away yet. So I am very happy to do this blog and I hope that folks can bear with me -I do struggle with my illness and medication issues from time to time, and I do not want my other blog to just 'die' completely while I work on this one-and finally -finally after years of wanting to write a fictional story -I have finally settled on the basic storyline -what a joke eh? Almost forty -four and have always wanted to write -and not once -ever have I completed any of my fictional writing-it may come to nothing-but I would rather have tried and failed than not to have tried at all. Again -please do yourself a favor and buy Dr. Holland's book-I have enjoyed it so much I am even going to review it at my other blog-and other recent authors some completely new to me and some much adored oldies. I actually feel like seeing if the English mystery writer Ruth Rendell has an email -in all seriousness-so I can thank her for the years of pleasure she has given me as a loyal reader of her books-actually I will check to see if Dr Holland does too while I am at it! Peace and be well to anyone stopping by! ps a final note-it appears that Dr Holland has written three works of fiction -at least-maybe more by now-The Bone Hunter, Slave of My Thirst and Lord of the Dead-so I will keep an eye out for these and any others also.