Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - Caesar, Pompey, Crassus: The First Triumvirate (Encore)

Episode Date: January 16, 2025

In the year 60 BC, a very unlikely alliance was formed between three of Rome’s most powerful men.  Gaius Julius Caesar, Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, and Marcus Licinius Crassus agreed to put aside their differences for mutual gain.  For many years the alliance worked, and the three men were able to run the Roman Republic….until it eventually fell apart. Learn more about the First Triumvirate on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Sponsors Mint Mobile Cut your wireless bill to 15 bucks a month at mintmobile.com/eed MasterClass Get up to 50% off at MASTERCLASS.COM/EVERYWHERE Quince Go to quince.com/daily for 365-day returns, plus free shipping on your order! ButcherBox New users that sign up for ButcherBox will receive 2 lbs of grass-fed ground beef in every box for the lifetime of their subscription + $20 off your first box when you use code daily at checkout! Subscribe to the podcast!  https://everything-everywhere.com/everything-everywhere-daily-podcast/ -------------------------------- Executive Producer: Charles Daniel Associate Producers: Ben Long & Cameron Kieffer   Become a supporter on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/everythingeverywhere Update your podcast app at newpodcastapps.com Discord Server: https://discord.gg/UkRUJFh Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/everythingeverywhere/ Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/everythingeverywheredaily Twitter: https://twitter.com/everywheretrip Website: https://everything-everywhere.com/  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey, everyone, this is Gary. I'm going to be gone the next few days because I have the privilege of inducting my friend Chris Christensen into the podcasting Hall of Fame. Chris is the host of the Amateur Traveler podcast on which I've appeared as a guest over 20 times. So, until I come back, please enjoy these Encore episodes. In the year 60 BC, a very unlikely alliance was formed between three of Rome's most powerful men. Gaius Julius Caesar, Nias Pompeius Magnus, and Marcus Lakinius Krasis, agreed to put aside the war. differences for mutual gain. For many years, their alliance worked and the three men were able to run the Roman Republic until it eventually all fell apart. Learn more about the first triumvirate on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. What if your perceptions about the past were wrong? ThruLine is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed. It effectively turned day into night. And how it shaped the world now. Time travel with us every week on the Thulein podcast from NPR.

In the early first century BC, the Roman Republic was a mess. From 83 to 81 BC, the generals Marius and Sulla fought a civil war that devastated the Roman aristocracy. In 71 BC, a slave revolt led by the gladiator Spartacus erupted in Italy until Krasas and Pompey put it down. In 63 BC, Rome survived the Catalan conspiracy, which threatened to put a small group in control of Rome. I've touched on or have devoted entire episodes to each of those items which shape this period of the Roman Republic. And in those episodes, I've mentioned the actors who will be central to this episode. At this point in Roman history, aristocratic Roman men of senatorial rank would constantly vie for power and prestige. There was a set of political offices, known as the Curses Hanorum, that you could hold, accumulating in the position of consul.

These were all elected positions, and to get elected, you needed to do several things. First, you needed what was called octoritas. Octoritas was a Latin term that encompassed the ideas of clout, influence, and prestige. You could gain octoritas in different ways, including being elected to lower offices and hosting games for the public. However, the best way to gain octoritas was probably to have some sort of military accomplishment that you could point to. Some sort of military glory was important but not absolutely necessary if you wanted to climb the curses honorum. Second, you needed money. There were a lot of palms to grease and campaigning cost cash.

Especially as you worked your way up the ranks, you needed money to pay for food and games for the Plobalians. Finally, you needed a strong network of patrons and clients. The Roman patronage system was an informal system where people with high wealth and status would serve as patrons to those who are lower in status or wealth, or perhaps just starting out. Each side of the relationship would provide services to the other. A patron might extend a loan to allow a client to run for office, and a client might support the political measures of their patron. One person's client might be someone else's patron.

This system was highly informal, but everyone knew who was whose patron. Having said that, let's now look at the three men who made up the triumvirate. The first person, and the oldest of the group, was Marcus Licinius Krasis. Krasis was rich. He was widely believed to be the richest person during the entire Republican period of Rome. He amassed his fortune engaging in real estate speculation during the dictator's ship of Sulla, under whom he served as an officer. He supposedly created the first fire brigade in Rome. He employed over 500 men who had rushed to buildings that were on fire. When they arrived,

they would do nothing. And Crassus would offer to buy the burning building for a pittance. If the owner agreed to sell, Crassus's fireman would put out the fire, and if they didn't agree to sell, they would let it burn to the ground. While Crassus was rich, he didn't have much to show in the way of military accomplishments. When the Spartacus slave revolt erupted, Krasis made sure that he was appointed as the commander to crush the revolt. While it did probably boost his octoritas, it was sort of a no-in situation. If you put down a slave revolt, no one would be really impressed beating a bunch of slaves. If he lost, he would be the guy who lost to an army of slaves. In the year 70 BC, Crassus won election as consul, and his co-consul for the year was his main rival, Pompeius Magnus.

Nias Pompeius Magnus came to govern with Crassus via a very different path. Whereas Crassus had money, Pompey had earned his position via military victories. He was appointed general at a very young age serving under Sulla during the Civil War. He went to Sicily in North Africa, where he put down resistance to Sulla, and also easily defeated the King of Numidia in battle. Sulla was so impressed that he gave him the cognomen Magnus, which means the Great in Latin. During the Spartacus revolt, the Senate sent Pompey to help Crassus, which angered Crassus to no end because he didn't want to share the glory. It was Pompey who was sent to crush piracy in the Mediterranean, which he did with ruthless efficiency.

When Rome was having issues with King Mithridates of Pontus, they sent Pompey to fix the problem, which he did, growing the empire, and also establishing Armenia as a client kingdom of Rome. Despite all his military success, Pompey was still considered an outsider by the optimates in the Senate. and the optimates were the established senators from ancient families. This became an issue when he came back to Rome in 61 BC to a triumph, and then tried to get legislation passed to distribute farmland to his veterans. The people went nuts for Pompey, but the Senate killed his proposal, and the head of the opposition, was Crassus. The final member of this group was Julius Caesar.

However, at this time, he still wasn't the Julius Caesar that everybody knows. Caesar at this time was a client of Crassus. Unlike Crasus and Pompey, Caesar's family was on the Mauryan side of the Civil War. In fact, he was the nephew of Marius and had to flee Rome so he wouldn't get executed. Caesar also had won the Grass Crown, the highest military award in Rome at a very young age. It was basically the equivalent of the Congressional Medal of Honor, and I've covered this in a previous episode. In 63 BC, he decided to run for Pontivus Maximus, which was the head priest in Rome. It was an elected position, and outside of the normal Cursus Hanorum.

but it was a lifetime position, so Caesar put himself heavily into debt to win the election, which he did easily. In his role as Pontifus Maximus, he could interpret auspices that could determine when the Senate could sit, and when specific actions could be taken. Krasus agreed to pay for much of Caesar's debts in exchange for political support to oppose Pompey's agenda. Caesar, being a Marian, was popular with the populares, the common people, and supported land and social reform legislation. He won election as Preator and was appointed the governor of Hispania ulterior with pro-consular powers, which made him immune to prosecution, which was a big deal considering his debts. In 60 BC, Caesar came back to Rome from

hisp. before his term of office was done, so he could run for consul in 59 BC. The problem was that he was entitled to a military triumph for his success in Hispania. However, he couldn't enter Rome before the triumph, but if you wanted to run for consul, he had to do so in person inside of Rome. Everybody thought this would prevent him from running for consul because nobody in their right mind would pass up a triumph. However, that is exactly what Caesar did. As part of his campaign for consul, he managed to get the support of both Krasis and Pompey. All three of them had problems with the Optimates faction in the Senate. Caesar managed to convince both men to put aside their differences to work together.

Everyone would get something out of this arrangement. Caesar would become consul. As consul, Caesar would then arrange to get Pompey's land grant for his veterans' pass. Crasus would get his pet legislation passed and an opportunity to finally get the military glory that he always wanted. Between the three of them, they could pretty much control the majority of the votes in the Senate and get at least one of their choices for consul elected every year going forward. Part of the deal included Pompey marrying Julia, the daughter of Caesar. This established a family bond between the two men to ensure that neither would turn on the other.

The odd thing about the marriage of Pompey and Julia is that the two of them, by all accounts, actually seemed to love each other, which was very rare in a Roman marriage. They actually showed affection in public, which most Romans considered to be very tacky. The Triumvirate was not a union of three men with common political views for the future of Rome. This was a coming together so each man could achieve their personal ambitions. I should note that supposedly they tried to get Cicero on board, but he had too much respect for the law and declined. So, Caesar ends up winning the consulship, and as a single ship, and it's a certain of, co-consul for the year is a guy by the name of Marcus Calpurnius Biblius, who was supported by

the optimates. Biblius tried to block Caesar and Pompey's legislation, but he was pretty much forced to retreat to his house by an angry mob, and he was ineffectual for the rest of the year. This allowed the triumvirate to push through much of the legislation that they wanted to pass. One of the things that Caesar got out of this was that after his tenure as consul he received a five-year appointment as the governor of cis and trans Alpine Gaul, which was then later extended by another five years. Caesar didn't return to Rome for a decade and spent those 10 years becoming the Julius Caesar that everyone is familiar with. Two things caused the downfall of the triumvirate. The first occurred in September of 54 BC when Julia died in childbirth. She gave birth

to a daughter who died two days later. With the death of Julia, the ties between Caesar and Pompey were gone, and it resulted in a downward spiral which later resulted in another civil war. World history would have been profoundly different if Julia and her daughter had lived. The other thing which killed the triumvirate was the death of Crassus. Crassus was appointed as the governor of Syria, and it was there that he would finally get his military glory in the biggest way possible. He was going to defeat the Parthian Empire, the one enemy that Rome was never able to conquer. However, that didn't happen. Instead, at the Battle of Caray in May of 53 BC, he and most of his troops were killed. According to legend,

he was killed when the Parthians poured molten gold down his throat to mock his wealth. If you ever wondered where the inspiration for that scene in Season 1 of Game of Thrones came from, it was Crassus. The endings for Pompey and Caesar weren't much better. Caesar, as most of you know, was assassinated on the floor of the Senate, stabbed 23 times, and Pompey was beheaded in Egypt after the Battle of Farsalis when he lost to Caesar in the Civil War, proving once and for all who the better general really was. The Roman historian Livy noted that the triumvirate was, quote, a conspiracy against the state by its three leading citizens.

Livy was right. The first triumvirate was just one more step along the path towards the end of the Roman Republic. And it would only be ten years after the fall of the first triumvirate that three more men would once again come together to form another triumvirate. Caesar's adopted son Octavian, Caesar's right-hand man Mark Anthony, and some other guy by the name of Marcus Lepernor. They would divide up the Republic in an attempt to control it. However, that is a story for another episode. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Benji Long and Cameron Kiever. I want to give a big shout out to everyone who supports the show over on Patreon,

including the show's producers. Your support helps me put out a show every single day. And also, Patreon is currently the only place where Everything Everywhere Daily merchandise is available to the top tier of supporters. If you'd like to talk to other listeners of the show and members of the Completionist Club, you can join the Everything Everywhere Daily Facebook group or Discord server. Links to everything are in the show notes.