The First Triumvirate

[Guest scipio]

Friends, Romans, countryman (lol) lend me your ears (or in this case, eyes!)

 

As it clearly states in the description I am wondering about the first triumvirate. First of all I'd like to know why the three participants decided to make a triumvirate, and what did they each expect from it?

 

Do you think that they were successful?

 

and finally why do you think that the Triumvirate collapsed?

 

Thank you for reading this (if you do lol) I know you'll come back with a good answer

 

my fellow roman enthusiasts

Scipio

[Primus Pilus]

There were several reasons for the first triumvirate. All 3 men had a considerable degree of power or clients at individuals, but there was also enough resistance to all to make individual efforts in the Senate a difficult proposition.

 

By combining their power base, they were able to effectively pass through proposals that otherwise would have failed. Caesar seemingly gained the most, the Consulship and eventual appointment as governor of Gaul. Pompey got land laws and settlements approved for his veterans and Crassus was also able to pass his own proposals. Additionally they were able to secure provincial interests either through direct governing or through various clients.

 

The Triumvirate was wildly successful. Each man benefited in some degree. Caesar got his Gallic conquest, Crassus got his Parthian conquest (which was a disaster) and Pompey got power and legitimate office in Rome.

 

It collapsed for several reasons, but there are a couple that stand out as the root causes. 1) Crassus was killed in Parthia. 2) Julia, daughter of Caesar and wife of Pompey, died.

With Crassus out of the mix, the triumvirate lost a third of its stabilizing force. With Julia dead, Pompey lost any obligation he may have had to Caesar. With the two of them left, and without Crassus to act as a third party, Pompey was very susceptible to the influences of Caesar's enemies in Rome. Call it fear, jealousy, legitimate concern over Caesar's growing strength, or whatever you'd like, Pompey simply switched sides.

 

Cato's, and others, insistence that Caesar be prosecuted after his imperum was gone (the end of his proconsular governorship), was then the next major contributing force to Caesar's march. Would Caesar have done it anyway? Who knows, but I wonder what course history would've taken if Caesar had been guaranteed that there would be no prosecution upon his return to Rome.

[pompeius magnus]

Actually I beleive that Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus reluctantly went to war with Caesar. He really didn't hate Caesar and some also speculate that had Pompey not have been murdered by the Ptolemies in Alexandria he may have been pardoned to a certain extent. The collapse of the first triumvirate was a major cause of the civil war. Its also interesting to think about the second triumvirate between Octavius, Anotonius, and Lepidius, and how its collapse led to the official end of the republic and the naming of Octavian(to be named Augustus shortly) as its first emperor.