In 60BC, one of history’s most iconic alliances was formed in the heart of Roman politics – the First Triumvirate. This union brought together three figures who had been undermined by Rome’s paradoxical constitutions and traditions, each left with a certain spite for the aristocratic conservatives that held an iron grip on Roman politics.
These men were the now legendary Gaius Julius Caesar; the Alexander-esque Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus; and the cold, strategic political spider Marcus Licinius Crassus.
Caesar was the son of a victim of conservative dictator Sulla, and had been left at a young age as the head of one of Rome’s noblest dynasties. As young people born into wealth tend to do, he spent this time basking in Rome’s exotic party scene, which was extravagant even by today’s standards. In this respect – and in his populist politics and determination to spread what would today be almost socialist ideals of equality – the conservatives of Rome’s nobility had learned to hate him. Furthermore, the death of Caesar’s father to these conservatives, men like Catullus and Hortensius, left him with a whole host of enemies.
Pompey was also a noble by birth, and his rise came through cleverly allying himself with Sulla. Despite this, almost every other aspect of Pompey’s life challenged the Republic’s traditions. Pompey idolised the Macedonian king Alexander the Great devoutly, calling himself the ‘New Alexander’. This wasn’t the most republican of obsessions. Pompey’s career was defined with his wars – as a general he doubled the size of the greatest empire the world had ever seen – and in doing so, managed to personally insult all the conservative generals who preceded him and failed. One famous example is Lucullus, a general so dreadful in the Mithridatic Wars that his own men led a revolution against him. When Pompey conquered the area and brought Mithridates to his death, Lucullus gave up even trying, and retired to the south of Italy where he became a connoisseur of exotic fish.
This fame came naturally to Pompey, who begun to dress like Alexander, and even sported a Macedonian style mullet as late as his mid forties. When he was worshipped in the streets by the people, he had a designated slave he instructed to remind him “remember, you are just a man”. In the eyes of many, Pompey had done the most dishonourable deed a Roman could – he had become a king in all but name.
The last Triumvir was not an aristocrat, nor was he a populist. He was Marcus Licinius Crassus, a man who belonged to the Equites; a mercantile class whose wealth came from taxes and administration. As with many cultures, working with money was considered a dishonourable trade, and as such, it was frowned upon for the aristocracy to have a hand in it. However, as Rome’s boundaries left the city walls and turned from a city to an empire, administration and taxes became pivotal to its success. One of the men behind this was Crassus. Crassus had early on made a powerful enemy. He, like Caesar and Pompey, was ambitious, and like Pompey, attempted to foster himself under Sulla. Pompey, however, was significantly better at not only military action but personality politics.
In the early 70s BC, history’s most remembered slave revolt took place, as Spartacus and many other gladiators fled their owners to fight for their freedom. This was more than just a slave revolt, including many elements of the Latin people who had been oppressed by Rome for centuries. For Crassus, this was his opportunity to secure a military legacy like that of his rival Pompey, who was returning from Spain a hero. It was an easy win, too, by any means, yet Crassus still managed to lose his first battle. In response to his armies running, he had them decimated – one in ten soldiers executed. This left him more terrifying to his men than the enemy, and they would not run again.
They did not – and using the full force of eight legions, Crassus devastated Spartacus’ army. He once more exercised his Machiavellian force of fear, and decorated the Appian Way (the closest thing to a highway of the Classical Period, a lengthy road that led straight into the heart of Rome) with the bodies of 6,000 crucified rebels. However for the sadistic Crassus, karma struck.
Pompey, home from Spain, swept up the remnants of the rebels, who had escaped through the cracks of Crassus’s army, and arrived in Rome a celebrated hero. Pompey received a Triumph for his actions against the rebels. Crassus did not.
And so, in 60BC, we have three figures at the forefront of Roman influence, yet each one on their own has only so much power. Against the conservative characters of Catullus, Hortensius, Cato, Cicero and hundreds of others in the senate, they could achieve nothing. However, unified, they owned Rome.
Pompey was revered by even the lowest of soldiers; Caesar was adored by the working class of Rome; Crassus had the money to propel them wherever they wished. And it was this logic that brought them to form the First Triumvirate, and with it, they took Rome.
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