Civil Wars

Such was the hardihood of Milo that he was moved less by fear of punishment for the murder than by indignation at the honor bestowed upon Clodius at his funeral. He collected a crowd of slaves and rustics, and, after sending some money to be distributed among the people and buying Marcus Cælius, one of the tribunes, he came back to the city with the greatest boldness. Directly he entered, Cælius dragged him to the forum to be tried by those whom he had bribed, as though by an assembly of the people, pretending to be very indignant and not willing to grant any delay, but hoping that if those present should acquit him he would escape a more regular trial. Milo said that the deed was not premeditated, since one would not set out with such intentions encumbered with his luggage and his wife. The remainder of his speech was directed against Clodius as a desperado and a friend of desperadoes, who had set fire to the senate-house and burned it to ashes with his body. While he was still speaking the other tribunes, with the unbribed portion of the people, burst into the forum armed. Cælius and Milo escaped disguised as slaves, but there was a heavy slaughter of the others. Search was not made for the friends of Milo, but all who were met with, whether citizens or strangers, were killed, and especially those who wore fine clothes and gold rings. As the government was without order these ruffians, who were for the most part slaves and were armed men against unarmed, indulged their rage and, making an excuse of the tumult that had broken out, they turned to pillage. They abstained from no crime, but broke into houses, looking for any kind of portable property, but pretending to be searching for the friends of Milo. For several days Milo was their excuse for burning, stoning, and every sort of outrage.

The Senate assembled in consternation and looked to Pompey, intending to make him dictator at once, for they considered this necessary as a cure for the present evils; but at the suggestion of Cato they appointed him consul without a colleague, so that by ruling alone he might have the power of a dictator with the responsibility of a consul. He was the first of consuls who had two of the greatest provinces, and an army, and the public money, and the one-man power in the city, by virtue of being sole consul. In order that Cato might not cause obstruction by his presence, it was decreed that he should go to Cyprus and take the island away from King Ptolemy--a law to that effect having been enacted by Clodius because once, when he was captured by pirates, the avaricious Ptolemy contributed only two talents for his ransom. When Ptolemy heard of the decree he threw his money into the sea and killed himself, and Cato settled the government of Cyprus. Pompey proposed the prosecution of offenders and especially of those guilty of bribery and corruption. He thought that the seat of the public disorder was there, and that by beginning there he should effect a speedy cure. He brought forward a law, that any citizen who chose to do so might call for an accounting from anybody who had held office from the time of his own first consulship to the present. This embraced a period of a little less than twenty years, during which Cæsar also had been consul; wherefore Cæsar's friends suspected that he included so long a time in order to cast reproach and contumely on Cæsar, and urged him to straighten out the present crookedness rather than stir up the past to the annoyance of so many distinguished men, among whom they named Cæsar. Pompey pretended to be indignant at the mention of Cæsar's name, as though he were above suspicion, and said that his own second consulship was embraced in the period, and that he had reached back a considerable time in order to effect a complete cure of the evils from which the republic had been so long wasting away.

After making this answer he passed his law, and straightway there ensued a great number and variety of prosecutions. In order that the jurors might act without fear Pompey stationed soldiers around them and superintended them in person. The first ones convicted were absentees: Milo for the murder of Clodius; Gabinius both for violation of law and for impiety, because he had invaded Egypt without a decree of the Senate and contrary to the Sibylline books; Hypsæus, Memmius, Sextius, and many others for bribery and for corrupting the populace. The people interceded for Scaurus, but Pompey made proclamation that they should wait for the decision of the court. When the crowd again interrupted the accusers, Pompey's soldiers made a charge and killed several. Then the people held their tongues and Scaurus was convicted. All of them were banished. Gabinius was fined in addition. The Senate praised Pompey highly for these proceedings, voted him two more legions, and extended the term of his provincial government. As Pompey's law offered impunity to any one who should turn state's evidence, Memmius, who had been convicted of bribery, called Lucius Scipio, the father-in-law of Pompey himself, to trial for like participation in bribery. Thereupon Pompey put on mourning and many of the jurors did the same. Memmius took pity on the republic and withdrew the accusation.

Pompey, as though he had completed the reforms that made the one-man power necessary, now made Scipio his colleague in the consulship for the remainder of the year. At the expiration of his term, however, although others were invested with the consulship, he was none the less the supervisor, and ruler, and all-in-all in Rome. He enjoyed the good-will of the Senate, particularly because they were jealous of Cæsar, who did not consult the Senate during his consulship, and because Pompey had so speedily restored the sick commonwealth, and had not made himself troublesome or offensive to any of them during his term of office. The banished ones went to Cæsar in crowds and advised him to beware of Pompey, saying that his law about bribery was especially directed against himself. Cæsar cheered them up and spoke well of Pompey. He also induced the tribunes to bring in a law to enable himself to stand for the consulship a second time while absent, and this was enacted while Pompey was still consul and without opposition from him. Cæsar suspected that the Senate would resist this project and feared lest he should be reduced to the condition of a private citizen and exposed [*](Y.R. 703) to his enemies. So he tried to retain his power [*](B.C. 51) until he should be elected consul, and asked the Senate to grant him a little more time in his present command of Gaul, or of a part of it. Marcellus, who succeeded Pompey as consul, forbade it. They say that when this was announced to Cæsar, he clapped his hand on his sword-hilt and exclaimed, "This shall give it to me."[*](This is a highly improbable tale. Cæsar was not in the least given to theatrical display. Plutarch (Life of Cæsar, 29) says: "It is said that one of Cæsar's centurions, who had been sent by him to Rome, standing before the senate-house one day, and being told that the Senate would not give a longer time in his government, clapped his hand on the hilt of his sword and said, ' But this shall give it."')

Cæsar built the town of Novum Comum[*](The modern Como. Strabo (v. I. 6) says that Pompeius Strabo, the father of Pompey the Great, restored Como, which was then a town of moderate size oppressed by the neighboring Rhetians; that Gains Scipio added about 3000 to its population, and that Cæsar added 5000 more, the most distinguished of whom were 500 Greeks. "To the latter," he continues, " Cæsar gave the right of citizenship and inscribed them among the colonists, but they did not live there permanently, although they gave the name to the settlement. All the inhabitants are called Neocomitæ which, by interpretation, means the people of Novum Comum." So it appears that the place was recruited by Cæsar, not originally founded by him.) at the foot of the Alps and gave it the Latin rights, which included a provision that those who had exercised the yearly chief magistracy should be Roman citizens. One of these men, who had held this office and was consequently considered a Roman citizen, was beaten with rods for some reason by order of Marcellus in defiance of Cæsar--a punishment that was never inflicted on Roman citizens. Marcellus in his passion revealed his real intention that the blows should be the marks of the foreigner, and he told the man to carry his scars and show them to Cæsar. So insulting was Marcellus. Moreover, he proposed to send successors to take command of Cæsar's provinces before his time had expired, but Pompey interfered, making a pretence of fairness and good-will, saying that they ought not to put an indignity on a distinguished man who had been so extremely useful to his country, merely on account of a short interval of time; but he made it plain that Cæsar's command must come to an end immediately on its expiration. For this [*](Y.R. 704) reason the bitterest enemies of Cæsar were chosen consuls [*](B.C. 50) for the ensuing year: Æmilius Paulus and Claudius Marcellus, cousin of the Marcellus before mentioned. Curio, who was also a bitter enemy of Cæsar, but extremely popular with the masses and a most accomplished speaker, was chosen tribune. Cæsar was not able to influence Claudius with money, but he bought the neutrality of Paulus for 1500 talents and the assistance of Curio with a still larger sum, because he knew that the latter was heavily burdened with debt. With the money thus obtained Paulus built and dedicated to the Roman people the Basilica that bears his name, a very beautiful structure.

Curio, in order that he might not be detected changing sides too suddenly, brought forward vast plans for repairing and building roads, of which he was to be superintendent for five years. He knew that he could not carry any such measure, but he hoped that Pompey's friends would oppose him so that he might have that as an excuse for opposing Pompey. Things turned out as he had anticipated, so that he had a pretext for disagreement. Claudius proposed the sending of successors to take command of Cæsar's provinces, as his term was now expiring. Paulus was silent. Curio, who was thought to differ from both, praised the motion of Claudius, but added that Pompey ought to resign his provinces and army just like Cæsar, for in this way he said the commonwealth would be made free and be relieved from fear in all directions. Many opposed this as unjust, because Pompey's term had not yet expired. Then Curio came out more openly and decidedly against appointing successors to Cæsar unless Pompey also should lay down his command; for since they were both suspicious of each other, he contended that there could be no lasting peace to the commonwealth unless both were reduced to the character of private citizens. He said this because he knew that Pompey would not give up his command and because he saw that the people were incensed against Pompey on account of his prosecutions for bribery. As Curio's position was plausible, the plebeians praised him as the only one who was willing to incur the enmity of both Pompey and Cæsar in order to fulfil worthily his duties as a citizen; and once they escorted him home like an athlete, scattering flowers, as though he had won the prize in some great and difficult contest, for nothing was considered more perilous then than to have a difference with Pompey.

Pompey, while lying sick in Italy,[*](Cicero makes mention of this illness of Pompey in the Tusculan Disputations (i. 35).) wrote an artful letter to the Senate, praising Cæsar's exploits and also recounting his own from the beginning, saying that he had been invested with a third consulship, and with provinces and an army afterward, which he had not solicited, but had been called to serve the public weal. He added that the powers which he had accepted unwillingly he would gladly yield to those who wished to take them back, and would not wait the time fixed for their expiration. The artfulness of this communication consisted in showing the fairness of Pompey and in exciting prejudice against Cæsar, as though the latter was not willing to give up his command even at the appointed time. When Pompey came back to the city, he spoke to the senators in the same way and then, also, promised to lay down his command. As a friend and marriage connection of Cæsar he said that the latter would very cheerfully do the same, for his had been a long and laborious contest against very warlike peoples; he had added much to the Roman power and now he would come back to his honors and his sacrificings[*](qusi/as, " sacrificings." This refers, says Combes-Dounous, to Cæsar's duties as Pontifex Maximus, a life office, to which he had been chosen in his younger days.) and take his rest. He said these things in order that successors to Cæsar might be sent at once, while he (Pompey) should merely stand on his promise. Curio exposed his artifice, saying that promises were not sufficient, and insisting that Pompey should lay down his command now and that Cæsar should not be disarmed until Pompey himself had returned to private life. On account of private enmity, he said, it would not be advisable either for Cæsar or for the Romans that such great authority should be held by one man. Rather should each of them have power against the other in case one should attempt violence against the commonwealth. Throwing off all disguise, he denounced Pompey unsparingly as one aiming at supreme power, and said that unless he would lay down his command now, when he had the fear of Cæsar before his eyes, he would never lay it down at all. He moved that, unless they both obeyed, both should be voted public enemies and military forces be levied against them. In this way he concealed the fact that he had been bought by Cæsar.