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The First Triumvirate
Julius Caesar served in Spain as proconsul in 61 B.C., a year later he
returned to Rome desiring the consulate, the supreme office of power during the
Republic. The senators were opposed to him, yet he came up with a brilliant idea. He
organized a coalition, known as the First Triumvirate, made up of Pompey,
commander in chief of the army; Marcus Licinius Crassus, the wealthiest man in Rome,
and himself. Pompey and Crassus were jealous of each other, but Caesar by
force of personality kept things going.
See Image of Julius Caesar
In 59 B.C. he married Calpurnia. In the same year, as consul, he was in favor
of an agrarian law providing Campanian lands for 20,000 poor citizens and
veterans, in spite of the opposition of his senatorial colleague, Marcus Calpurnius
Bibulus. Caesar also won the support of the wealthy equites by getting a
reduction for them in their tax contracts in Asia. This made him the guiding power in
a coalition between people and plutocrats.
He was assigned the rule of Cisalpine and Transalpine Gaul and Illyricum with
four legions for five years (58-54 B.C.). The differences between Pompey and
Crassus grew, and Caesar again moved (56 B.C.) to patch up matters, arriving at
an agreement that both Pompey and Crassus should be consuls in 55 B.C. and that
their proconsular provinces should be Spain and Syria. From this arrangement he
drew an extension of his command in Gaul to 49 B.C. In the years 58-49 B.C. he
firmly established his reputation in the Gallic Wars.
In 55 B.C., Caesar made explorations into Britain, and in 54 B.C. he defeated
the Britons, led by Cassivellaunus. Caesar met his most serious opposition in
Gaul from Vercingetorix, whom he defeated in Alesia in 52 B.C. By the end of the
wars Caesar had reduced all Gaul to Roman control. These campaigns proved him
one of the greatest commanders of all time. In them he revealed his consummate
military genius, characterized by quick, sure judgment and determined energy.
The campaigns also developed the personal devotion of the legions to Caesar. His
personal interest in the men (he is reputed to have known them all by name)
and his willingness to undergo every hardship made him the idol of the army—a
significant element in his later career.
In 54 B.C. occurred the death of Caesar's daughter Julia, Pompey's wife since
59 B.C. She had been the principal personal tie between the two men. During the
years Caesar was in Gaul, Pompey had been gradually leaning more and more
toward the senatorial party. The tribunate of Clodius (58 B.C.) had aggravated
conditions in Rome, and Caesar's military successes had aroused Pompey's jealousy.
Crassus' death (53 B.C.) in Parthia ended the First Triumvirate and set Pompey
and Caesar against each other.
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