Quickthink

We left our story of ancient Rome with the collapse of the “Triumvirate” of Crassus, Pompey and Caesar, and Caesar crossing the Rubicon.

But how did the Triumvirate come together in the first place? By any standard, knitting together this political alliance was a spectacular achievement. Crassus was the richest man in Rome. Pompey was wealthy as well, and had a stellar military reputation. Caesar was immensely popular. At these heights of power, building partnerships is no easy task.

It was Caesar’s handiwork. Caesar started from his friendship with Crassus. Here is Crassus, the richest man in Rome (from Democratic Underground.com)

Some may recall Crassus from the 1960 Stanley Kubrick movie Spartacus where Crassus was played by Laurence Olivier.  In the film, he is the nasty guy who crucifies the whole slew of rebel gladiators, including Kirk Douglas who paid the price for having the starring role.

Caesar used his friendship  to reconcile Crassus and Pompey, and in the process have himself elected consul. He strengthened his alliance with Pompey by giving Pompey his daughter Julia in marriage. This was a considerable gift, as Julia was twenty years younger than Pompey and quite a beauty. Perhaps more important, Pompey was deeply in love with her. In turn, Julia was a loyal and caring spouse.

Roger Fisher should use this as a case study. Caesar had “gotten to yes” in a very big way, building a framework on based on interests, relationships and trust to allocate power in a partnership.  BTW, this is a very different image of Caesar than we typically see in the movies. Not the brilliant military man, but rather the patient and clever politician.

And it seems as well that the collapse of the Triumvirate was no fault of Caesar’s. If anyone was to blame it was Crassus. Crassus just couldn’t get over the idea that he had to have a great military victory in Persia. Why? No one really knows.

In the next installment we will take a closer look at what happened when an aging Crassus invaded Persia, and how that disaster may have upset the balance of political power in Rome.

The 1963 film “Cleopatra” (BTW a dreadful film but a great vehicle for Elizabeth Taylor) starts off with Caesar (played by sexy Rexy himself) saying after the battle of Pharsalia that “It was Pompey, not I” who wanted to fight. This got me thinking about Pompey — and to start the following thread about Pompey, Caesar, and those “good old days”. This is the first post

We tend to think of Pompey as a Roman city that was covered over by an eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Pompey was also a man, who was referred to as the “great Pompey”. Here he is

He was a member of the first “Triumvirate” formed in 60 B.C. to rule Rome. The other two were Crassus and Julius Caesar. Rather inconveniently for the other two, Crassus was killed by the Parthians in the “catastrophic” battle of Carrhae in 53 B.C.. Caesar meanwhile was busy consolidating his conquest of Gaul. Pompey was technically governor of Spain, but he busied himself in Rome … getting jealous of Caesar.

The problem was serious. Not only was Caesar a rabble rouser (playing to the masses with his correspondence from Gaul). He was proving to be a rather formidable military leader. And the aristocrats controlling the senate were worried that Caesar planned to break their stranglehold on power. Here is what Asimov had to say (in his historical commentary on Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar).

Seeing Pompey as a far less dangerous threat to their interests, the aristocrats lined up behind Pompey, who was flattered  and wooed into their camp.

So it came to be that when Caesar’s term as governor of Gaul came to an end (in 50 B.C.), the Senate buoyed by Pompey’s support … ordered Caesar to return to Rome at once without his army.

Procedurally, this was correct since bringing a provincial army to Rome would be treason.

But what would you have done if you were Caesar? Errr … cross the Rubicon?

More installments to follow …