Intrigues of Pompey and Crassus to obtain the Consulship.
VII. From what precedes, it is evident that unpopularity did not fall upon Cæsar, but upon the means employed by Crassus and Pompey for the purpose of obtaining the consulship.
They made use of Caius Cato, kinsman of the Stoic, and of other men equally undeserving of esteem, to cause delay in the time of holding the comitia, and thus lead to the creation of an interrex,[653] which would facilitate their election, since the consuls, who were the ordinary presidents of the assembly of the people, were opposed to them.
The relations of the events of this period present great confusion. Dio Cassius informs us that, in the sequel of violent disputes in the curia, between Pompey, who had recently returned from Sardinia, and the Consul Marcellinus, the Senate, in sign of its displeasure, decreed that it would go into mourning, as for a public calamity, and immediately carried the decree into effect. Caius Cato opposed his veto. Then the Consul Cn. Marcellinus, at the head of the Senate, proceeded to the Forum, and harangued the people to ask it for the comitia, without success probably, since the senators returned immediately to the place of their session. Clodius, who, since the conference of Lucca, had become more intimate with Pompey, appeared suddenly among the crowd, interrupted the consul, and bantered him on this display of untimely mourning. In the public place Clodius would easily carry the approval of the multitude; but when he attempted to return to the Senate, he encountered the most resolute opposition. The senators rushed to meet him and prevent him from entering; many of the knights assailed him with insults; they would have treated him still worse, had not the populace rushed to his aid and delivered him, threatening to commit to the flames the entire assembly.[654]
On another hand, Pompey, with more authority and less violence, protested against the last senatus-consultus. Lentulus Marcellinus, addressing him in full Senate, demanded if it were true, as reported, that he aimed at the consulship. “As yet I know not what I shall do,” replied Pompey, roughly. Then, perceiving the bad impression caused by these disdainful words, he added immediately, “For the good citizens, there is no use in my being consul; against the factious, perhaps I am necessary.”[655] To a similar question, Crassus replied, modestly, “that he was ready to do whatever would be useful to the Republic.” Then Lentulus bursting into reproaches against Pompey’s ambition, the latter interrupted him insolently. “Remember,” he said, “that thou art indebted to me for everything. Thou wast dumb, I made thee a talker; thou wast a greedy beggar, I turned thee into a glutton, who vomits to eat again.” This language will give an idea of the violence of political passions at that period. The senators, and Marcellinus himself, seeing that they could not contend against the influence of these two men, withdrew. During the rest of the year they took no part in public affairs; they confined themselves to wearing mourning, and absenting themselves from the festivals of the people.
Campaign against the Peoples on the Shores of the Ocean.
VII. While Pompey and Crassus, in accord with the convention of Lucca, employed all the means in their power to arrive at the consulship, Cæsar had his regards still fixed on a conquest which every year seemed achieved, yet every year it had to be commenced again. If the Gauls, divided into so many different peoples, were incapable of uniting for their common defence, they did not allow themselves to be discouraged by a single misfortune. Hardly were they crushed on one point, when the standard of insurrection was raised somewhere else.
In 698, the agitation showed itself first along the shores of the ocean, from the Loire to the Seine. The peoples of the Morbihan, masters of a considerable fleet, and possessing the exterior trade, placed themselves at the head of the movement. They entered into alliance with all the peoples who dwelt on the coasts between the Loire and the Scheldt, and sent for assistance from England, with which country they were in constant relation. Under these circumstances, Cæsar foresaw that it was on the sea that he must curb the spirit of these maritime peoples. He gave orders for the building of ships on the Loire, demanded others from the peoples of the Charente and the Gironde, and sent from Italy Decimus Brutus with galleys and sailors. As soon as the season permitted, he repaired in person to the neighbourhood of Nantes, not far from Angers, where Publius Crassus was in winter quarters with the 7th legion. From the moment of his arrival his attention extended over the vast territory where he was to establish the domination of Rome. With this aim, he distributed his troops as follows: Labienus is sent with the cavalry to the east, in the direction of Trèves, to hold the Germans in check; on his way, he will confirm the fidelity of the people of Champagne and their neighbours; P. Crassus is sent towards Aquitaine, to subdue that country; Sabinus towards Normandy, to combat the insurgents of the Cotentin; Cæsar reserves for himself the operations in the Morbihan. After besieging, not without great difficulties, several small fortresses which, placed at the extremity of promontories, were surrounded with water at high tide, he resolved to wait for his fleet, and took a position on the coast, at Saint-Gildas, to the south of Vannes. Decimus Brutus led his vessels out of the Loire, encountered the enemy in sight of the Roman army, and, by a concurrence of fortunate circumstances, destroyed the Gaulish fleet; the flower of Brittany perished in the combat. The Morbihan and the neighbouring states submitted, and, nevertheless, the conqueror put to death all the principal citizens.
Cæsar’s conduct towards the inhabitants of this province has been justly blamed by the Emperor Napoleon I. “These people,” he says, “had not revolted; they had furnished hostages, and had promised to live peaceably; but they were in possession of all their liberty and all their rights. They had given Cæsar cause to make war upon them, no doubt, but not to violate international law in regard to them, and to commit so atrocious an abuse of victory. This conduct was not just, and it was still less politic. Such means never answer their object, they exasperate and revolt nations. The punishment of particular chiefs is all that justice and policy permit.”[656]
While Brittany was vanquished on the sea, Sabinus gained a decisive victory over the peoples of Normandy, near Avranches; and, at the same time, Publius Crassus reduced Aquitaine. Although this young lieutenant of Cæsar had only a single legion, a corps of cavalry, and some auxiliaries, he gained possession of the strong fortress of Sos, and inflicted a sanguinary defeat on the peoples situated between the Garonne and the Adour. His glory was the greater, as the Aquitanians had called to their assistance the Spanish chiefs, the wreck of that famous army which Sertorius had so long formed on the model of the Roman tactics.