[47] The son of Crassus, who is introduced abruptly in Plutarch's fashion.
[48] After Cæsar had been prætor in Spain he was elected consul B.C. 59, with M. Calpurnius Bibulus (see the Life of Cæsar, c. 14). After his consulship Cæsar had the Gauls as his province. The meeting at Luca (Lucca), which was on the southern limits of Cæsar's province, took place B.C. 56; and here was formed the coalition which is sometimes, though improperly, called the first Triumvirate.
[49] The second consulship of Pompeius and Crassus was B.C. 55. Cn. Cornelius Lentulus Marcellinus was one of the consuls of the year B.C. 56, during which the elections for the year 55 took place. This Domitius, L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, was consul B.C. 54. In the quarrel between Pompeius and Cæsar, he joined Pompeius, and after various adventures finally he lost his life in the battle of Pharsalus B.C. 48.
[50] The first 'house' (οἰκία) is evidently the house of Domitius. The second house (οἴκημα), which may be more properly rendered 'chamber,' may, as Sintenis says, mean the Senate-house, if the reading is right. Kaltwasser takes the second house to be the same as the first house; and he refers to the Life of Pompeius, c. 51, 52, where the same story is told.
In place of οἴκημα some critics have read βῆμα the Rostra.
[51] Appian (Civil Wars, ii. 18) says that Pompeius received Iberia and Libya. The Romans had now two provinces in the Spanish peninsula, Hispania Citerior or Tarraconensis, and Ulterior or Bætica. This arrangement, by which the whole power of the state was distributed among Pompeius, Crassus and Cæsar, was in effect a revolution, and the immediate cause of the wars which followed.
Appian (Civil Wars, ii. 18) after speaking of Crassus going on his Parthian expedition in which he lost his life, adds, "but the Parthian History will show forth the calamity of Crassus." Appian wrote a Parthian History; but that which is now extant under the name is merely an extract from Plutarch's Life of Crassus, beginning with the sixteenth chapter: which extract is followed by another from Plutarch's Life of Antonius. The compiler of this Parthian History has put at the head of it a few words of introduction. The extract from Crassus is sometimes useful for the various readings which it offers.
[52] This wife was Cæsar's daughter Julia, whom Pompeius married in Cæsar's consulship (Vell. Paterc. ii. 44). She was nearly twenty-three years younger than Pompeius. Julia died B.C. 54, after giving birth to a son, who died soon after her. She possessed beauty and a good disposition. The people, with whom she was a favourite, had her buried in the Field of Mars. See the Lives of Pompeius and Cæsar.
[53] That is the Lex which prolonged Cæsar's government for five years and gave Iberia (Spain) and Syria to Pompeius and Crassus for the same period. The Lex was proposed by the Tribune Titus Trebonius (Livius, Epitome, 105; Dion Cassius, 39. c. 33).
[54] C. Ateius Capito Gallus and his brother tribune P. Aquillius Gallius were strong opponents of Pompeius and Crassus at this critical time. Crassus left Rome for his Parthian campaign at the close of B.C. 55, before the expiration of his consulship (Clinton, Fasti, B.C. 54).