First Triumvirate

And he's also quite famous for being the richest man in Rome, prototype billionaire.

He literally owned most of the city, and he's almost as famous for being in the first triumvirate with Julius Caesar and Pompey Magnus.

Although, if you're in a pub quiz, Crassus is usually the name of the three that people can't remember.

Just like most people know the names of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, but they always forget Michael Collins.

He chooses Julius Caesar to take under his political wing, and Crassus is now bankrolling a lot of Caesar's early election campaigns, including that of Pontifex Maximus.

So now Crassus has a wingman.

In the year 60, Caesar is able to get these arch-rivals, Crassus and Pompey, to at least tolerate each other and form with him the First Triumvirate, an unofficial alliance that allowed them to completely dominate politics.

Personal rivalries could be put aside as long as they worked together for their mutual gain.

The entire Roman universe is to be governed in executive fashion by just three men.

Caesar famously was the architect of the First Triumvirate, an arrangement between three generals come statesmen, himself, Pompey, and Crassus.

But there is a crucial difference second time around.

Again, a case of Octavian not wishing to repeat his predecessor's mistakes.

And the River Euphrates is a really important marker for both the Parthians and the Romans in terms of the extent of their empire.

And yes, uh, 53, 54 BC, actually, Crassus, who is one of the, the big three in Rome, along with Caesar and Pompey, and they have their informal alliance, which is sometimes referred to as the so-called First Triumvirate, um, wanting to gain military glory, is commander in Syria and wants to go off to conquer Parthia.

Uh, this is not the first contact Rome has had with Parthia.

The first attested contact with Parthia is with, uh, Sulla in, actually in about 92 BCE when he's governor out there, so before his civil war with Marius.

It was at this time that Caesar returned from Spain and had the adroitness, as has already been explained, to extinguish these feuds and reconcile these apparently implacable foes.

he united them together and joined them with himself in a triple league which is celebrated in roman history as the first triumvirate the rivalry however of these great aspirants for power was only suppressed and concealed without being at all weakened or changed the death of crassus soon removed him from the stage caesar and pompey continued afterward for some time an ostensible alliance caesar attempted to strengthen this bond by giving pompey his daughter julia for his wife julia though so young even her father was six years younger than pompey was devotedly attached to her husband and he was equally fond of her she formed in fact a strong bond of union between the two great conquerors as long as she lived One day, however, there was a riot at an election, and men were killed so near to Pompey that his robe was covered with blood.

He changed it.

The servants carried home the bloody garment, which he had taken off, and Julie was so terrified at the sight, thinking that her husband had been killed, that she fainted, and her constitution suffered very severely by the shock.

Caesar had political ambition and growing connections with the Roman people.

Their interest would eventually bring them together in an alliance that historians call the First Triumvirate, and that alliance would change Caesar's career forever.

Because Caesar's rise was not the story of a man who suddenly seized Rome, it was a gradual accumulation of power.

He learned how Rome worked.

The three men had different goals, and they were not necessarily friends, and in fact, they had plenty of reasons to distrust one another, but they recognized a simple political reality.

If they combined their influence, they could accomplish far more together than any of them could accomplish alone.

And, you know, the First Triumvirate, it wasn't an official Roman government.

There was no constitutional office called the Triumvirate, and the Roman people didn't elect the three men as a governing body.

In 60 BC, an oligarchical arrangement is put in place.

It's known as the First Triumvirate.

It sees Caesar and his allies, Pompey and Crassus, divvying up the spoils of the Roman world, running its territories as their own private fiefdoms, enriching themselves beyond their wildest imaginations.

As a child, Octavian does all the usual stuff for a youth of his years.

It was at this time that Caesar returned from Spain and had the adroitness, as has already been explained, to extinguish these feuds and reconcile these apparently implacable foes.

he united them together and joined them with himself in a triple league which is celebrated in roman history as the first triumvirate the rivalry however of these great aspirants for power was only suppressed and concealed without being at all weakened or changed the death of crassus soon removed him from the stage caesar and pompey continued afterward for some time an ostensible alliance caesar attempted to strengthen this bond by giving pompey his daughter julia for his wife julia though so young even her father was six years younger than pompey was devotedly attached to her husband and he was equally fond of her she formed in fact a strong bond of union between the two great conquerors as long as she lived One day, however, there was a riot at an election, and men were killed so near to Pompey that his robe was covered with blood.

He changed it.

The servants carried home the bloody garment, which he had taken off, and Julie was so terrified at the sight, thinking that her husband had been killed, that she fainted, and her constitution suffered very severely by the shock.

He found a surprise ally in eventually achieving these goals when Julius Caesar gained election as consul in 59 BC.

Pompey, Caesar and a third individual, Marcus Crassus, whom Pompey had campaigned alongside against Spartacus' revolt over a decade earlier, now formed a political alliance known as the First Triumvirate.

Caesar, who at this stage was the more junior partner, living in the shadows of the glory Pompey had acquired over two decades of successful military campaigns, managed to engineer the passage of legislation through the Senate to reward Pompey's veterans with land and wealth, while Pompey now married Caesar's daughter, Julia, who was only around 17 years old at the time, to cement the political alliance.

Pompey's surprise alliance with Caesar complicated his relations with more conservative and traditional senators like Cato and Cicero.

With Cicero's backing, Pompey was given a temporary commission to regulate the grain supply.

While his efforts temporarily restored Pompey's popularity among the people, Claudius continued to instigate opposition to Pompey in 56 BC.

In response to these actions, and despite his discomfort with Caesar, who after his term as consul in 59 BC had elected to become governor of Gaul and was then engaged in a series of spectacularly successful military campaigns there throughout the 50s BC, ones which saw him threatened to eclipse the achievements of Pompey in the 70s and 60s BC, Pompey nevertheless renewed the first triumvirate alliance with Caesar and Crassus at a meeting in Lucca in 56 BC.

Pompey and Crassus were then elected as the two Consuls for 55 BC, the second time the two men had held the office together, as the trio effectively began to divide up political power within the Republic between them.

It was at this time that Caesar returned from Spain and had the adroitness, as has already been explained, to extinguish these feuds and reconcile these apparently implacable foes.

he united them together and joined them with himself in a triple league which is celebrated in roman history as the first triumvirate the rivalry however of these great aspirants for power was only suppressed and concealed without being at all weakened or changed the death of crassus soon removed him from the stage caesar and pompey continued afterward for some time an ostensible alliance caesar attempted to strengthen this bond by giving pompey his daughter julia for his wife julia though so young even her father was six years younger than pompey was devotedly attached to her husband and he was equally fond of her she formed in fact a strong bond of union between the two great conquerors as long as she lived One day, however, there was a riot at an election, and men were killed so near to Pompeii that his robe was covered with blood.

He changed it.

The servants carried home the bloody garment, which he had taken off, and Julie was so terrified at the sight, thinking that her husband had been killed, that she fainted, and her constitution suffered very severely by the shock.

He was won over.

These three then formed what is known as the First Triumvirate, a union of shrewdness, renown, and riches by which Caesar expected to rise to great power, Pompey to retain his power, and Crassus to gain greater wealth.

End of Chapter Twenty-Eight.

Chapters twenty-nine through thirty of History of Rome from the Earliest Times Down to 476 AD by Robert F. Pennell.

This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.

Recording by Tony Richardson.

Chapter Twenty-Nine: The First Triumvirate.

Pompey was ostensibly at the head of the First Triumvirate and in return supported Caesar in his candidacy for the consulship.