State of Anarchy in Rome.
IV. A concise view of the events at Rome at this time shows to what a degree the moral level had been abased. It was no longer those memorable struggles between the patricians and the plebeians, where the greatness of the object aimed at ennobled the means. It was no longer a question of defending secular rights, or of acquiring new rights, but of vulgar ambitions and personal interests to be satisfied.
Nothing indicates more the decay of society than when law becomes an engine of war for the use of the different parties, instead of remaining the sincere expression of the general needs. Each man who arrived at power rendered himself guilty on the morrow of that which he had condemned on the eve, and made the institutions of his country the slaves of his momentary passion. At one time it was the Consul Metellus who, in 697, retarded the nomination of the quæstors, in order to prevent that of the judges, with the view of shielding Clodius, his kinsman, from a judiciary accusation;[622] at another time it was Milo and Sextius who, by way of reprisals against the same consul, opposed all imaginable obstacles to the convocation of the comitia;[623] lastly, it was the Senate itself which (in 698) sought to retard the election of the judges, in order to deprive Clodius of the chance of being named ædile. The ancient custom of taking the auspices was no longer, in the eyes of anybody, more than a political manœuvre. Not one of the great personages whom the momentary favour of the people and the Senate raise to distinction preserve any true sentiment of rectitude. Cicero, who sees the whole Republic in himself, and who attacks as monstrous all which is done against him and without him, declares all the acts of the tribuneship of Clodius illegal; the rigid Cato, on the contrary, defends, through personal interest, these same acts, because Cicero’s pretension wounds his pride, and invalidates the mission he has received from Clodius.[624] Caius Cato violates the law by making public the Sibylline oracle. On all sides people have recourse to illegal means, which vary according to their several tempers; some, like Milo, Sextius, and Clodius, openly place themselves at the head of armed bands; others act with timidity and dissimulation, like Cicero, who, one day, after a previous unsuccessful attempt, carries away by stealth from the Capitol the plate of brass which bore inscribed the law which had proscribed him. A singular error of men, who believe that they efface history by destroying a few visible signs of the past!
This relaxation of the social bonds caused inevitably the dispersion of all the forces, the union of which would have been so useful to the public good. It was no sooner agreed, in a moment of danger, to give to one man the authority necessary to restore order and tranquillity, than, at the same moment, everybody united to attack and degrade him, as if each were afraid of his own work. Cicero has hardly returned from exile, when the friends who have recalled him become jealous of his influence; they see with pleasure a certain degree of coldness arise between Pompey and him, and secretly support the intrigues of Clodius.[625] Pompey, amid the famine and the public agitation, is hardly invested with new powers, before the Senate on one side, and the popular faction on the other, plot together to ruin his credit: by clever intrigues, they awaken the old hatred between him and Crassus.
Pompey believed, or pretended to believe, that there was a conspiracy against his life. He would no longer attend the Senate, unless the session were held close to his residence, he seemed to think it so dangerous to pass through the town.[626] “Clodius,” he said, “seeks to assassinate me. Crassus pays him, and Cato encourages him. All the talkers, Curio, Bibulus, all my enemies excite him against me. The populace, who love the tattle of the tribune, have almost abandoned me; the nobility is hostile to me; the Senate is unjust towards me; the youth is entirely perverted.” He added that he would take his precautions, and that he would surround himself with people from the country.[627]
Nobody was safe from the most odious imputations. Caius Cato accused the Consul P. Lentulus of having assisted Ptolemy with the means of quitting Rome clandestinely.[628] M. Cato was exasperated against everybody. Lastly, an implacable party never ceased manifesting, by its motions, without result, it is true, its rancour and animosity against the proconsul of Gaul. Towards the spring of 698, L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, the brother-in-law of Cato, whose sister Porcia he had espoused, and who had enriched himself with the spoils of the victims of Sylla, proposed to deprive him of his command.[629] Others renewed the proposal to put an end to the distribution of the lands of the Campania, and revived the opposition to the Julian laws.[630] But Cicero, at the request of Pompey, obtained the adjournment of this question to the month of May.[631] He was, indeed, himself perplexed on this question, and confessed that he had no very clear views upon it.[632]
The Interview at Lucca.
V. In the midst of the general confusion, many citizens turned their eyes towards Cæsar. Appius Claudius had already paid him a visit.[633] Crassus left Rome suddenly to join him at Ravenna, at the beginning of the spring of 698, before the campaign against the Veneti, and explain to him the state of affairs, for, as Cicero says in a letter of a subsequent date, there was no occurrence so small in Rome that Cæsar was not informed of it.[634]
Some time afterwards, Pompey, who was to embark at Pisa, to proceed to Sardinia, in order to hasten the supply of wheat, arrived at Lucca, where he had an interview with Cæsar and Crassus. A crowd of people assembled similarly in that town; some were drawn thither by the prestige of Cæsar’s glory, others by his well-known generosity, all by the vague instinct which, in moments of crisis, points to the place where strength exists, and gives a presentiment of the side from which safety is to come. The Roman people sent him a deputation of senators.[635] All the most illustrious and powerful personages in Rome, such as Pompey, Crassus, Appius, governor of Sardinia, Nepos, proconsul of Spain,[636] came to show their warm admiration for him and invoke his support;[637] even women repaired to Lucca, and the concourse was so great that as many as 200 senators were seen there at a time; 120 lictors, the obligatory escort of the first magistrates,[638] besieged the door of the proconsul. “Already,” Appius writes, “he disposed of everything by his ascendance, by his riches, and by the affectionate eagerness with which he conferred obligations upon everybody.”[639]
What took place in this interview? No one knows; but we may conjecture from the events which were the immediate consequences of it. It is evident, in the first place, that Crassus and Pompey, who had recently quarrelled, were reconciled by Cæsar, who, no doubt, placed before their eyes the arguments most calculated to reconcile them: “The public interest required it; they alone could put an end to the state of anarchy which afflicted the capital; in a country which was a prey to vulgar ambitions, it required, to control them, ambitions which were greater, but, at the same time, purer and more honourable; they must easily have seen that it was not in the power of a man like Cicero, with his tergiversations, his cowardice, and his vanity, or Cato, with his stoicism, belonging to another age, or Domitius Ahenobarbus, with his implacable hatred and his selfish passions, to restore order, or put an end to the divisions of opinion. In order to obtain these results, it was necessary that Crassus and Pompey should labour resolutely to obtain the consulship.[640] As to himself, he only asked to remain at the head of his army, and complete the conquest he had undertaken. Gaul was vanquished, but not subjugated. Some years were still necessary to establish there the Roman domination. This fickle and warlike people, always ready for revolt, was secretly incited and openly supported by two neighbouring nations, the Britons and the Germans. In the last war against the Belgæ, the promoters of the rising, according to the confession of the Bellovaci, had clearly shown, by taking refuge in Britain after their defeat, whence came the provocation. Even at this very moment, the insurrection which was in preparation among the tribes of the Veneti, on the shores of the ocean, was instigated by these same islanders. As to the Germans, the defeat of Ariovistus had not discouraged them; and several contingents of that nation were lately found with the troops of Hainault. He intends to chastise these two peoples, and to carry his arms beyond the Rhine as well as beyond the sea; let them, then, leave him to finish his enterprise. Already the Alps are levelled; the barbarians, who, hardly forty-four years ago, were ravaging Italy, are driven back into their deserts and forests. A few years more, and fear or hope, punishments or recompenses, arms or laws, will have bound for ever Gaul to the empire.”[641]