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Caesar's Political Maneuvering
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0:02
In the summer of the year 60 BCE, Julius Caesar, approaching the end of his term as the governor of Hispania Ulterior, returned to Italy. He had spent his time campaigning against the hill people of Northern Spain, and for his efforts had been awarded a triumph by the Senate. This was a great honour, but Caesar had even higher ambitions. It took some arm twisting, but he was able to secure a special dispensation from the
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Senate allowing him to run for Consul two years before he was technically old enough to run. This was, strictly speaking against the rules, but more common in the Late Republic. So, here is Caesar, sitting outside the city of Rome, waiting for the Senate to decide on the date for his triumph. This is when the Conservative bloc in the Senate threw him a curveball. They lobbied, successfully, for Caesar's triumph to be pushed back until after the deadline to announce your candidacy for Consul.
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Why does this matter? Because triumphs were for active generals, and active generals were forbidden from entering the city. And if you you couldn't enter the city, you couldn't run for Consul. Why did they do this? Basically because Caesar was a Radical Reformer and they didn't like his stupid face. Caesar sent a letter to the Senate being like "okay it looks like you guys made a scheduling mistake?" But here's the thing. Everybody had to know that he intended to run.
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Why did they think he got that special dispensation to run early? He had been openly preparing for this campaign. He had actually left Spain early just so he could be back before the deadline. If they had a problem with him running, they shouldn't have given him the dispensation to run early. But if this was simply a scheduling mistake, Caesar was open to working it out. He suggested: "How about you just let me declare my candidacy in abstensia?"
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The Senate heard his request, and harrumphed many harrumphs. Such a thing just wasn't wasn't done, and they had already gone out of their way to bend the rules for Caesar. The Conservatives, lead by a Senator named Cato, had a field day with this. Cato filibustered, meaning he just spoke and spoke until the Senate was forced adjourn for the day. No decision was taken on Caesar's requset. Okay. Message received. Obviously it wasn't a mistake. This was sabatage.
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"Coincidentally" Cato's son in law, Bibulus, was running for Consul as well with the full support of the Conservatives bloc. Okay, now it was making more sense. In response to this, Caesar did something insane. He renounced his command. By doing this, he also renounced his triumph, which, I can't stress enough, was an unthinkable thing for a politician to do. But by doing this, he gained access to the city. People watched, astonished, as he marched right down to the forum and officially declared
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his candidacy for Consul. Caesar already had a strategy in place. He had arranged to run on a joint ticket with a man called Lucceius. Since there two Consuls this was sometimes done, but it was the exception rather than the norm. Caesar was a young and popular politician running as a reformer. Lucceius was a wealthy, more moderate Senator with no name recognition or, let's be honest, charisma. Lucceius financed the campaign and paid the bribes, while Caesar made the speeches and
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rallied the people. Unlike Caesar, Lucceius was by no means a radical. He was a close friend to Cicero, an extremely influential slightly Conservative but ultimately pragmatic Senator. Caesar was desperately seeking Cicero's support, not only for this campaign but for the year to come. In this respect Lucceius served not only as a piggy bank but as an olive branch to the more moderate Senators. As the campaign was drawing to a close it began to dawn on the Conservatives that Caesar
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was the clear front runner. Before every Consular election, the Senate decided where the next two Consuls would serve as governors after their term was up. This was done before the election so the winners weren't subjected to any political shenanigans. Since the Conservatives couldn't do anything about the fact that Caesar looked like he was going to win this thing, they decided to hijack this process. They started to make a big stink in the Senate about the physical degradation of rural Italy.
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This was kind of true, so they got some support from their fellow Senators. As a solution, they proposed that instead of assigning a province to the next Consuls, they should instead spend their time restoring the "woodland and country lanes of Italy." Incredibly, the Senate fell for this. The motion passed. To many outside observers, including Caesar, this was another act of sabotage. But Caesar was powerless to do anything about it. Yet.
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When election day rolled around everyone kinda figured that Caesar was going to win. The real question became who else would serve as Consul? It was a race for second place between Bibulus, Cato's Conservative son in law, and Lucceius, Caesar's uncharismatic ally. In the end, Bibulus won. This must have come as a surprise to Caesar, since the plan was for poor old Lucceius to ride in on his coat tails. Meanwhile, this was a huge coup for the hard line Conservatives.
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Bibulus had pledged to put a halt on all new reforms during his term. It was going to be an interesting year. The election for Consul took place in July, and incoming Consuls didn't actually take power until January 1st, so Caesar had a tonne of time to prepare. And he did. Now, this hasn't come up yet but it's important to know: Caesar was in a secret alliance with two other Senators. Pompey and Crassus. This is known by historians as the First Triumverate.
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As Consuls, Pompey and Crassus had had a terrible time getting any significant legislation past the Conservative bloc in the Senate. They each came in making big promises to their supporters, but neither was able to deliver. Pompey had come back from the East a conquering hero, and had promised to set up colonies for tens of thousands of veterans in the newly conquered territory. This was expensive, and he couldn't get the bill through the Senate.
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Crassus had promised to bail out the tax collectors, which, as you can imagine, was pretty unpopular. It didn't help matters that on top of this there was a personal animosity between the two. As a remedy, these two men secretly backed this young populist named Julius Caesar. If Caesar could pass these bills for them, they promised to back the rest of his legislative agenda. The group also agreed to pull any bill if one of the three found it objectionable.
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January 1st of 59 BCE rolled around, and Caesar and Bibulus began their term. It was customary for the Consul who got the most votes in the election to take the lead during the first month, with the second place Consul taking the lead during the second month, swapping back and forth for the entire year. This act of "taking the lead" was called holding fasces. Caesar held fasces first. He immediately ordered scribes to take down all Senate business and to post it in the
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forum outside for the public to read. Forever the populist, Caesar knew that he had the people on his side, and wanted increase the public pressure on some of his more Conservative colleagues. His next move - and we're still talking about like the first day of his term - was to put forward an ambitious Land Reform Bill. Let's go into detail on this. At this time radical land redistribution had been a goal of Reformers for over 70 years.
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Over the last century, Italy's agricultural sector had been hollowed out. The huge influx of slaves and wealth meant that smaller landowners were being bought up by huge megaplantations, with hordes of slaves doing the actual work. This had pushed entire generations of poor farmers into the cities. These urban poor were now elligable for heavily subsidized bread, so this was a huge drain on the public coffers.
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Over the decades, these megaplantations neglected their land, and much of it was just sitting there uncultivated. Domestic grain production dropped, while its demand continued to rise. This was a recipe for economic disaster, and the Reformers had taken up the cause for generations, with some limited success. Caesar's first bill, on his first day, was meant to address this. He proposed that they set up a Land Commission responsible for buying up land from willing
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megaplantations and redistributing it to the urban poor through a lottery. The expectation was that this would allow for thousands of urban poor to leave the city and set up small profitable farms on previously unproductive land. In order to maximize the number of people affected, applicants were required to be married men with 3 or more kids, and as a friendly gesture to Pompey, veterans were also allowed to apply.
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These new farmers were also forbidden from selling their land for 20 years, in order to prevent the megaplantations from just going around and buying it all up again. Many Senators were concerned with the cost of this plan. As a concession to them, Caesar allowed for a region in central Italy called Campania to be exempted from the bill, since much of the land here was actually owned by the government and provided a steady source of income.
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The land commission was to be made up of 20 prominent Romans appointed by the Consul, who would then be responsible for the land purchases. After some Senators raised objections, Caesar added a line to the bill that barred himself from serving as a commissioner. The thing is, before the Public Assembly could approve any bill, it had to be posted publicly for 24 days. Normally this wouldn't really matter, but Caesar had to hold fasces when the law went into effect.
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He needed the 20 men on the commission to be answerable to him. If the law went into effect when Bibulus held fasces, he could stack the commission with a bunch of guys that could just reject every land sale. Caesar only had a few days to get his bill through the Senate if he wanted to get it passed by the Public Assembly before February. After the initial compromises were made, Caesar painstakingly went line by line and read the
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entire bill before in front Senate, stopping after each sentence asking if there were objections. There were none. After he was done, debate opened up, and Cato rose to comment. He spoke about how it was a very fine bill, but this year was just a bad time to do any major land reform. And then he kept talking. And kept talking. The dude was filibustering the bill. Caesar was beside himself. He had held the Senate's hand through this entire process, made compromises left and
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right, and yet Cato was still trying to torpedo the bill for no specific reason. Caesar snapped. He ordered Cato arrested. He had the authority to do this as Consul, but the Senate errupted into chaos. A bunch of Senators stormed out, with one telling Caesar to his face that he'd rather be in prison with Cato than in the Senate with Caesar. The whole thing was a major misstep. Not only did Caesar alienate the entire Senate by trampling on its prerogatives, but he gave ammunition to his enemies.
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This is when they started to call him a tyrant. Caesar backed down. He released Cato and adjourned the Senate for the day. It was obvious that Cato and his Conservatives weren't going to play nice, so Caesar had to think creatively. He took to the streets. He posted the full text of the Land Bill in the forum for anybody to read, and simply proclaimed that the Public Assembly would vote on it in 24 days. He then went around and started to make a series of speeches promoting the bill to the
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public. The Senate never passed the bill, Caesar just... decided to skip that step. Due to a quirk in the Roman Constitution this wasn't technically against the law, but it just wasn't done. Pompey and Crassus surprised everybody by vocally supporting what Caesar was doing, which added some legitimacy to the whole thing. Caesar even invited Bibulus to come and debate the merits of the bill before the public.
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He came, but the crowd was so whipped up that he was boo'd off of the stage before he even got a chance to speak. At the end of the 24 day grace period, it was time for the Public Assembly to vote on the bill. Before the vote, a large Conservative delegation arrived, lead by Bibulus and Cato, and followed by all of the Conservative Tribunes of the Plebs, and bunch of lesser Senators. The inclusion of the Tribunes was significant, because both they and the Consuls had the
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power to veto the proceedings. They had come to do just that. Upon their arrival, the crowd flew into a frenzy. Bibulus was making his way towards the speaking platform when the crowd attacked him. His bodyguards were overpowered, and he was pulled into the crowd. Bibulus legitimately thought that he was about to be killed. Instead, the crowd dumped feces on his head. The Conservatives were absolutely distraught over what they saw, and fled for their own safety.
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Once they were gone, a vote was called and the Land Reform Bill was passed with a huge majority. Now, Bibulus would later claim that during this incident, he was exercised his veto the entire time, making the entire vote illegal. Caesar would claim that the roar of the crowd was so loud that nobody could hear what anybody was saying. You can decide for yourself who you believe. At last, Caesar finally got to appoint his commissioners, and oh, look at that, Pompey
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and Crassus were at the top of the list. On February 1st, Bibulus held fasces. His first act was to call for a meeting of the Senate to officially condemn Caesar for his use of mob violence. At a minimum he wanted the vote overturned, and there was even talk of stripping Caesar of his Consulship. The speaking order in the Senate always went in order of prestige, and in this case the order turned out to be very significant. Bibulus held fasces, so he got to speak first.
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As the other sitting Consul, Caesar spoke second, in his own defense. Then, Consuls from the previous years got to speak, two of whom happened to be Pompey and Crassus. They both supported Caesar's actions, and said that the vote was legal. This really got people's attention. Not only did Caesar have control over the mob, but he seemed to have the support of some Rome's most powerful Senators too. All of a sudden no other Senators felt comfortable criticizing Caesar.
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Bibulus's proposal died on the floor. After this incident, Bibulus retreated to his home and basically did not appear again publicly for the rest of his term. In the absence of his colleague, Caesar unexpectedly held fasces again. And, as a cherry on top, the Senate was now kind of terrified of him. He had his big signature piece of legislation in place, so he started paying back his allies. The first order of business was to ratify Pompey's conquests in the East.
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See, Pompey had conquered an incredible amount of territory in the East, adding 4 new provinces to Rome. He also set up some new protectorates, and negotiated new alliances. Upon his return, the Senate saw fit to award him a triumph, but didn't bother ratifying his conquests or treaties. Even when Pompey himself was Consul, he couldn't get his own conquests recognized by the Senate, which only shows you how broken the system was during this period.
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Caesar was able to get this squared away with minimal opposition, much to Pompey's delight. Caesar also had to pay Crassus back for his support. Crassus had been supported by the tax collectors, who had gotten themselves into a bit of a bind. Rome didn't administer its own tax collection, but contracted it out to private companies who bid on how much tax they would be able to collect. Well, in the East, some of the tax collectors found themselves unable to meet their own bids, like, by a lot.
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This was partially due to the fact that Pompey had spent years destroying commerce by conquering everything in sight, and partially due to the fact that the tax collectors just screwed up and overbid. Caesar lowered the amount of tax due by one third, and everybody walked away from the whole thing grumbling, but the problem was solved. Another weird piece of old business that Caesar wanted to clear up had to do with Egypt.
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The previous ruler, Ptolemy XI having no legitimate heirs, left his kingdom to the Roman Republic in his will. After his death, Ptolemy XII an illegitimate heir, assumed the throne and Rome never bothered to press its claim. Finally, in Caesar's year, Ptolemy actually traveled to Rome to lobby for official recognition as the true ruler of Egypt. Apparently Ptolemy paid Caesar and Pompey a king's ransom in bribes.
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Caesar asked that the Senate formally recognize Ptolemy's claim, and threw an alliance with Egypt in there for good measure. The Senate agreed, and the whole thing was taken care of. During this flury of legislative activity, Bibulus, still housebound, would not stay quiet. Consuls had the power to decide when certain festivals and religious holidays were going to happen, and Bibulus was being a nuisense by putting them all on days when Caesar had votes scheduled.
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Technically, this should have made all of these votes illegal, but Caesar also happened to be Rome's head priest, and he seemed to think it was all okay. The people were quite content to just go along with this, because they saw Bibulus as a laughing stock. Meanwhile, in the Senate, Caesar was able to get the money to resettle Pompey's veterans in the East, fulfilling his final legislative obligation to his fellow triumvirs.
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During the debate for this bill, one ex-Consul named Lucullus, spoke in opposition. When Caesar pushed back and lightly hinted that maybe it was time to start looking into old corruption charges, Lucullus threw himself to the ground and groveled at Caesar's feet like a slave. Right there on the floor of the Senate, in front of everybody. This was an ex-Consul. It was shocking. You may (or may not) remember all the way back to before Caesar's was Consul, when the
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Conservatives decided that he was needed to protect "woodland and country lanes of Italy" after his term. Well Caesar hadn't forgotten. Serving as governor after your term as Consul was a huge perk, and Caesar wanted to make the most of it. One of Caesar's allies put forward a bill to give him the command of Illyricum, which was on the Adriatic Sea, and Cisalpine Gaul, which was in Northern Italy. Two provinces. This was for a five-year command, which was longer than normal.
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He was also given the priviledge of picking his own legates, which was usually something the Senate did. Just as this bill was going through, word came in that the governor of Transalpine Gaul unexpectedly died. This province was just added to the mix, and by the end, the Senate awarded Caesar 3 provinces, and a total of 4 legions. By any conventional standard this was overkill. Nobody got three provinces. I'm sure the Senate's logic was that once Caesar left the capitol, politics would slowly
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return to normal, and if they needed to give him 3 provinces to convince him to leave that was fine. It around this time that Caesar proposed a Second Land Reform Bill, only a few months after his first one had started to go into effect. We simply don't have enough information on Caesar's motives for this. Either Caesar felt emboldened by his newfound monopoly on power, or he felt that his first Land Reform Law wasn't as effective as he had hoped. Honestly I don't know.
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But with this second bill he turned his sights towards Campania, the publicly owned land that was explicitly exempted from the first law. There was enough land in Campania for 20,000 small family farms, and since Rome already owned the land, the bill could be implemented immediately. But it faced some fierce opposition in the Senate. Cicero in particular was a vocal opponent, saying that the loss of Campania was too much for the Roman treasury to take.
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Caesar tried to bribe Cicero by promising to name him as one of his Legates next year, but Cicero refused. In the end, many lesser Senators found themselves intimidated or bribed, and the bill was able to squeak through without the support of men like Cicero. For his next mammoth legislative undertaking, Caesar tackled one of his pet projects, and, again, it didn't make him any friends in the Senate. For the majority of Caesar's adult life he had been fascinated with how Roman provinces
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were governed, and he had some serious proposals for reform. A lot of proposals, actually. He dropped on the Senate's doorstep a bill with over a hundred separate chapters, covering everything from administration, to tax collection, to restrictions on bribery, to rules on balancing provincial budgets. It had everything. The Conservative bloc in the Senate had devoted their careers to crusading against corruption, so they had a really hard time criticizing this bill.
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And, by the way, everybody agreed that these reforms were badly needed. The Conservatives hated Caesar's guts, but they couldn't find any way to block this bill without looking like complete hippocrits. It passed easily, and these reforms remained in place relatively unchanged for centuries. We're approaching the end of Caesar's term as Consul, but at some point in the autumn something weird happened. We can't say with certainty *what* happened, but we have rumours.
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Listen to some of the stories, and let's just see if a pattern emerges. The first version we hear is this: a man named Vettius came before the Senate and claimed that a Senator named Curio - one of Caesar's chief opponents - planned to murder Pompey. Another version: Vettius said that Curio planned to murder Pompey and Caesar. Another version: Vettius said Curio and a man named Brutus - maybe you've heard of him - planned to murder Pompey and Caesar.
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Another version: Vettius said that Curio and Brutus and Bibulus planned to murder Pompey and Caesar. Another version: Vettius said that Curio and Brutus and Bibulus and Cicero's son-in-law planned to murder Pompey and Caesar. Another version: Vettius said that Curio and Brutus and Bibulus and Cicero's son-in-law and Lucullus - that guy who had fallen before Caesar and begged like a slave - planned to murder Pompey and Caesar. You get the idea.
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It looks like this started off as one rumour that may or may not have been true and conveiniently ballooned until it touched almost all of Caesar's political enemies. Get out your tinfoil hats, because there's one more detail we know. The next day Vettius was found dead. Woah. October rolled around, and Caesar oversaw the selection of his successors. (Bibulus inexplicably kept on pushing back the election date.)
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The Reformers ran their candidates, the Conservatives ran their candidates, and in the end the winners were Caesar's father in law and one of Pompey's old Legates. Two Reformers, and two allies of Caesar. His legacy was now secure. Consuls officially handed over power on January 1st, and it was customary for them to give farewell speeches at the end of the year. Caesar gave his speech, it was normal, whatever, history doesn't remember it. Then, to everybody's surprise, there was Bibulus.
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The man hadn't been seen in public all year, and suddenly he wanted to deliver a speech. As he approached the speaking platform, a Tribune of the Plebs stepped forward. This Tribune basically owed his entire career to Caesar. He invoked his Veto, stopping Bibulus from giving his farewell speech, and stripping the poor man of his last shred of dignity. Caesar couldn't have asked for a better gift on his last day as Consul.
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