Marius and Sulla and the rise of Ceasarism

Caesarism only gave a name to a well established process in the fall of the Roman Republic.  The conflict between Caesar and Pompey was merely a reflection of the class conflict left unresolved by Marius and Sulla.  The conflict erupted when the counter weight of Crassus was removed and the familial ties between the men were broken.  The artificial friendship between Pompey and Caesar were plugs in a dam full of holes; a dam that had consistently failed to hold back the flood of conflict.  For a long time this conflict was exacerbated by men seeking power and self-aggrandizement.

Conflict was avoided in the beginnings of the Roman republic.  The head of state was alternated between the original classes, the Romans and the Sabines.  The roots of this conflict were evident in the attempted reforms of the tribuneship of the Gracchi brothers.  The Gracchi brothers resorted to violence in order to institute reforms such as a repeal of the law against intermarriage between the patrician and plebeians, land reforms, and extension of citizenship to Italian allies.  Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus both met their ends at the hands of aristocratic mobs.

At the beginning of his career, Marius took pains to alienate the patrician class.  He purposely chose soldiers from the lower classes contrary to tradition.  Flushed with unprecedented victories over the invading Cimbri, he embarked upon a political career feverish with actions against the patrician class.  His excesses were matched or exceeded by the aristocratic reaction led by his rival Sulla.

Caesar was a nephew of Marius, who flouted the enmity of Sulla.  When he might have escaped to exile during Sulla's dictatorship, he stood for the priesthood at Rome.  He was elected Pontifex Maximus or high priest.  In a celebration, he had statues of Marius erected at the capitol at night.  This ploy fooled no one.  But luckily for his safety, the aristocratic class despised his youth; they would not listen when Sulla warned,"In this boy are many Mariuses".

Pompey was the darling of the patrician class.  He was born a patrician to an illustrious family.  He fought for Sulla in the civil wars leading an army that he had gathered and trained while in exile.  He had fought wars in Parthia and Asia extending the eastern frontier of Rome.  He was given absolute powers to suppress piracy and to solve the resultant grain shortage.

They pledged mutual support for their candidates for office, for their aspirations to provincial governorships, and for legislation to provide public funds for their separate military campaigns.  Pompey also loaned troops to Caesar for use in Gaul.  This friendship was cemented with alliances by marriage.  Caesar also sent troops home in order that they might vote for Pompey and Crassus in return for favorable legislation upon their election.

Caesar learned much in Gaul.  He learned military science, and that he was a latent genius at that subject.  He learned that he could amass the wealth necessary to conduct bribery successfully.  He was finally able to suborn officials.  When he camped south of the Alps for winter, so many people came from Rome to visit and seek his advice and his bribes that at one time there were 200 senators at his camp.

This balance of power remained because if they fought openly, Crassus would have had opportunity to defeat the weakened winner.  Crassus died from an abysmally mismanaged military campaign in Parthia.  Since his death was quickly followed by the death of Pompey's wife in childbirth, and since Caesar's granddaughter by Pompey did not survive her mother, there were no longer any ties to hold back hostility.

The Senate became concerned over the rising power of Caesar.  The latest elections had gone against Pompey and open strife became conspicuous.  The lack of government was a reason that some gave for the need for a dictator.  Many in the Senate felt that a legal monarchy was preferable to government by the sword.  The Senate in the person of Cato also felt that Pompey would be the milder and more tractable candidate for monarchy.  They began to consider proposals to disarm Caesar and to remove him from lucrative provincial government.  Accusations of malfeasance of public funds were made.  Caesar's envoys, men of rank and position, were attacked in the Senate.  Worst of all, to be stripped of his legions and to return to Rome a private citizen would disqualify him from a public celebration, a triumph, commemorating his victories in Gaul.

Caesar returned to Pompey the loaned troops.  They acted as agents provocateurs.  They belittled Caesar's accomplishments, and the loyalty of his troops to Pompey.  Pompey had always despised Caesar's power, thinking that as he had raised Caesar up, he could reduce him just as easily.  Pompey also counted upon raising troops seemingly out of nowhere, as he had been able to do in the past, as he had done during the civil wars of Sulla and Marius.  Caesar also made counter-proposals.  He proposed that he should be treated equally with Pompey, either Pompey should disband his troops and they both present themselves to the Roman people for judgment, or that if Pompey should retain his provinces and troops, then Caesar should also retain his.  These proposals were received with joy by the people, and with contumely by the Senate.  In response, Caesar still offered compromise.  He offered to relinquish all but two of his provinces and all but two of his legions.  This proposal was rejected with greatest vehemence yet.

He halted his advance on the banks of the Rubicon.  The river which marked the boundary between his provinces and Roman lands, Here he stopped and considered the hostility of the Senate, his probable fate if he acquiesced, and the consequences to Rome and himself if he advanced.  Reaching a decision, Caesar suddenly advanced without waiting for his troops beyond the Alps to arrive.

Caesar may have said, "Let the die be cast." but the die was really cast long before by Marius.