Julius Caesar by Ernle Bradford Read Free Book Online Page A

as if it had been a natural occupation to gain distinction in. They had divers arsenals, or piratic harbors, as likewise watchtowers and beacons, all along the sea-coast; and fleets were received that were well manned with the finest mariners, and well served with the most expert pilots, and composed of swift-sailing and light-built vessels adapted for their special purpose… There were of these corsairs above one thousand sail and they had taken no less than four hundred cities…
     
    Pompey was not only a great soldier but a great organizer and administrator. He divided the Mediterranean into thirteen sections, allotted a squadron of his ships to each, and systematically combed the sea from one end to another. This disciplined and organized operation was something that the pirates had never met with before and, since they operated as individuals or small groups, they fell easy prey to the Roman squadrons. By the end of 67 (Plutarch with, one suspects, some exaggeration says “within forty days”) Pompey had systematically swept the western sea and completely cleared the trade routes of the empire. The grain ships moved freely again, the price of bread fell in Rome, imports and exports flowed normally and the people of Rome hailed Pompey as their deliverer. He was the hero of the hour.
    It was in this atmosphere that, early in the following year, Manilius, one of the tribunes, proposed that Pompey be given an even more important task—the overall command of the Mithridatic War. There was even further consternation among the aristocratic oligarchy, for whom Pompey in the past had seemed only a tool to be used. He was not of the nobility but only from the class of the knights, and he now seemed to be getting beyond their control. Caesar once again supported the proposal, knowing as well as the senators who opposed it that—since the restoration of the power of the tribunes—it could not ultimately be gainsaid. As Dio Cassius puts it: “Caesar wanted to flatter the people, who seemed to him far more powerful than the senate [my italics], and to prepare the way for a similar decree in his own favor at some time in the future.” He had seen that Pompey’s star was in the ascendant. He may have calculated too that there was a chance Pompey would be killed in the East (as so many Romans had been), and that in any case his long absence from Rome would remove him from the political field. And Caesar never at any time forgot that, however great a commander’s achievements in foreign fields and even if he was awarded a triumph upon his return, the man who was away missed the shifts and nuances in the political heart of empire. Even as a young man he had always ensured a regular flow of information from the capital city. Pompey, as his life shows, was an admirable soldier and an honest administrator, but the cunning cat’s cradle of politics was not his forte.
    Besides, the absence of Pompey from the city would leave Caesar free to cultivate the friendship of Licinius Crassus—whose surname has become synonymous with exorbitant wealth—and as always Caesar needed money to endear himself to the populace, as well as to indulge his own luxurious tastes. “Nobody,” Crassus is reported as saying, “can afford to become a force in politics unless he can support a private army.” It may have been about this time that Caesar became the lover of Tertulla, Crassus’ wife; there are references in Suetonius, Plutarch and Cicero to the fact that Tertulla was well-known for her infidelities and she is known to have been one of Caesar’s mistresses. Apart from his wealth, Crassus came from an ancient and distinguished family and had been consul with Pompey prior to a recent rift between them—something which Caesar was in due course to heal. In the meantime the millionaire found it convenient to have an active and able young man from his own class to act as his adviser and helper in his numerous concerns, which ranged from silver