Chapter 87: A New Face in the Senate >
Chapter 87. A New Face in the Senate >
When Marcus returned from Egypt, there were several big events happening in Rome.
The first one was Caesar’s remarriage.
After losing his wife Cornelia, the mother of Julia, and divorcing his second wife Pompeia, he had remained single.
But Caesar, who was a consul and a high priest, could not stay unmarried for long.
He asked Lucius Calpurnius Piso, a powerful senator, for his daughter’s hand.
Piso was a gentle and fair man who was popular among both the aristocrats and the populists.
He did not hate Caesar like the aristocrats, nor worship him like the populists.
He just evaluated Caesar as a person objectively.
And he concluded that he was good enough to entrust his daughter to him.
He only demanded one thing from Caesar.
“If you marry my daughter, you have to minimize your relations with other women. You have to swear that you will always put her first. If you promise me that, I will allow the marriage.”
Caesar gladly accepted.
Piso’s daughter Calpurnia was nineteen years old this year, younger than his daughter Julia.
Caesar, who married a wife more than 20 years younger than him, kept his promise and was faithful to her.
Calpurnia was completely charmed by Caesar’s kindness, which was different from the rumors.
This had a huge meaning.
Piso, who had a reputation inside and outside the Senate, started to actively support Caesar.
Caesar, who gained popularity with the land reform and absorbed the neutrals with his marriage to Piso, began to implement his policies without hesitation.
This led to the second big event.
It was that Bibulus, the other consul, practically gave up on politics and secluded himself in his mansion.
He had already suffered a lot from Caesar and rarely left his house.
He had a heavy responsibility as a consul, but he could not stop Caesar and only received resentment from the citizens.
Even his fellow aristocrats began to doubt his ability unlike before.
He wanted to shout ‘then why don’t you try it’ at them.
But venting his anger would only lower his reputation.
The consul had a great authority, but also a great responsibility.
If things had gone well, Bibulus could have received praise from the aristocrats and secured his position.
That’s what it meant to be in charge.
He did not blame his colleagues now.
But he still felt bitter.
It was not entirely Bibulus’ fault that he could not stop Caesar.
The reason why he lost his political influence completely was because of his province assignment after his consulship ended.
Originally, Bibulus and Caesar were supposed to take care of the forests and roads in Italy.
But Caesar did not intend to do that at all.
He used his popularity from the land reform and his alliance with Piso to change his province assignment.
Caesar’s loyal subordinate Vatinius declared this absurd proposal in the assembly.
“Why should Gaius Julius Caesar, who passed the land reform and raised the rights of the citizens without sparing himself, receive such an unreasonable treatment?
Caesar has already proven his ability in Hispania. He conquered the rebellious tribes and expanded Rome’s territory.
Such a talent should not waste time in Italy fixing roads. Look at the situation in Gaul!
Gaul Cisalpina and Illyria are practically paralyzed. We need to send an excellent person there! I beg you to agree to change Caesar’s assignment from forest and road maintenance to Gaul Cisalpina and Illyria!”
Vatinius’ passionate speech was enough to move the hearts of the citizens.
To them, it did not seem normal for a former consul to look after forests and roads.
They thought that the Senate was being spiteful to Caesar.
Pompey added fuel to the fire.
He attended the assembly and gave a speech supporting Caesar on the podium.
“I guarantee Caesar’s ability. He will be a strong wall that protects Rome’s north. Citizens, please trust Caesar as much as you trust me. He will never disappoint you!”
After Pompey, Piso, the neutral, also came out and supported Caesar.
The assembly’s mood was already leaning towards Caesar, and it solidified with their speeches.
In fact, the province assignment for the consuls was half-forced by the Senate, so they had nothing to say either.
Even Vatinius’ fellow tribunes did not dare to veto it.
If they had assigned normal provinces from the beginning, it would have passed without any trouble. But they faced a backlash for no reason.
Vatinius, who had gained momentum, inserted additional clauses into the bill without hesitation.
“Gaul Cisalpina and Illyria have been neglected for years. It is very inefficient to assign a governor to each province.
So let’s combine the two provinces and extend the governor’s term to five years. Caesar will command four legions, one more than the three legions currently in the two provinces. Of course, the funds for the additional legion will be paid by Caesar himself.”
Vatinius’ proposal had no logical flaws.
The governor’s term was usually one year, but it could be extended from the start if he had a special mission.
Gaul was like a fence that protected Rome from the northern tribes.
It was reasonable to rebuild it completely with five years and four legions.
And since one of the four legions was funded by Caesar himself, it would save the budget.
The citizens had no reason to oppose it.
Of course, the aristocrats shouted their opposition.
As always, Cato was at the forefront of the opposition.
He stood on the podium of the assembly, undaunted by the mudslinging he had endured last time.
“Good Roman citizens! You are being deceived by Caesar. Do you think he is taking the province of Gaul for the sake of Rome’s security?
He always has a hidden agenda behind his words. I will tell you how vile his actions have been so far.
Caesar used his daughter as a tool to exploit the Crassus family, one of the elders of the Senate. He sold his daughter as a means to gain power!
But the noble Crassus family did not fall for Caesar’s trap. So he married the young daughter of the prestigious Piso family this time.
How long must we use our families as political instruments in Rome? How long must we tolerate such corrupt practices?
If we let Caesar continue to rise, Rome’s moral decay will only worsen. We must oppose him! I trust that you, the citizens, will make the right decision!”
It was a passionate speech, but the citizens listened with bored expressions.
Cato had never been popular with the masses.
His speeches were best suited for boosting the morale of the senators in the Senate.
When he spoke to a large crowd of citizens, he needed a fellow senator to follow up on his speech.
Usually, Bibulus took that role.
But when the Batinian law was passed, Bibulus failed to support Cato properly.
He was haunted by the nightmare of the land law that was passed before.
Not only Bibulus, but most of the senators could not oppose the speech.
They feared that going against the will of the citizens here would have a huge impact on the election in two months.
Caesar had planned this from the beginning, submitting such a bill at a time when the election was imminent.
Bibulus, who thought he only had to exercise his veto power until the end of his term, realized how short-sighted he was.
“What are we going to do now? Two provinces and four legions for five years? This is too much, even if we are not at war.”
“Bibulus, you were so confident at first. Come up with a plan, a plan!”
“Are we going to be dragged around by Caesar like this?”
Bibulus had no clever solution.
The problem did not end there.
Gallia Cisalpina was in northern Italy in modern terms, and Illyria was in Slovenia and Croatia.
Metellus, the governor of Gallia Cisalpina Transalpina, which corresponds to southeastern France, suddenly died.
Caesar did not miss this opportunity.
Batinian passed another amendment that added Gallia Transalpina to Caesar’s province.
The Senate, which was facing an election, could not even voice their opposition and watched Batinian’s law pass.
The biggest tragedy for Bibulus was that his province did not change unlike Caesar’s.
“We need someone to take care of the forests and roads as Consul Bibulus said. So I respect his opinion and leave his province as it is.”
Batinian emphasized this maliciously. No one in the Senate did not know that this opinion came from Caesar.
But what could they do?
Bibulus could not take back what he had said.
He would have been consoled a bit if he had been appointed to an eastern province, but he had to survey roads and measure land all over Italy even after his term as consul ended.
He tried to sink into the mud with Caesar, but he ended up wearing shit water alone.
Still, his fellow senators blamed him for not stopping Caesar every day.
He lost his desire to stay in politics.
Eventually, Bibulus declared that he would spend the rest of his term at home due to poor health.
The Senate was in an uproar, but Bibulus had no more energy to perform his duties as consul.
Thanks to this, Caesar got a chance to act as consul alone until the end of his term.
Naturally, it became easier for him to propose policies that would affect the election.
The situation in northern Italy, where Caesar was appointed as governor, was not good.
Ariovistus, the chief of the Suebi tribe of Germanic origin, was the eye of the storm.
He was the king of a powerful force that controlled the area between the Rhine River (Rhenus), which divided Gaul and Germania.
He wanted to expand his influence westward into Gaul and wanted Rome to guarantee his territory.
Rome also did not want to fight with Germanic tribes.
Caesar drew out a resolution that recognized Ariovistus as Rome’s friend, and the Senate agreed.
They did not want to give Caesar a chance to gain military glory in a war with Germany.
Marcus returned to Rome on the day after Rome announced its resolution to recognize Ariovistus.
The aristocratic senators welcomed the young genius’s return sincerely.
After completing his return report in the Senate, Marcus was immediately summoned to a meeting of the aristocratic faction.
The situation was close to the worst, but not completely hopeless.
First of all, Cicero joined the aristocratic faction completely to fill the gap left by Bibulus.
He, who was not a nobleman, became a member of the aristocratic faction to prevent the dictatorship of the popular faction.
The aristocrats regarded him as a kind of emergency measure committee.
“What we need to do is, first, second, and third, the election.”
Cicero repeated his emphasis as he looked around the aristocratic senators.
“We have to admit that we lost the initiative to Caesar this year. So let’s accept this year’s defeat and prepare for next year’s situation. If we lose this election too, next year’s situation will be even more hopeless.”
No one objected.
Crassus asked with a cautious expression.
“The fact that the election is important is something that everyone here should be aware of. Of course, I would like to win if I could. The problem is whether we can do it realistically.”
“To be honest, it’s not easy. But the candidates you have gathered, Crassus, are the best we have right now. We have to support their campaign as much as possible and pour money into it as long as it doesn’t violate the law.”
As soon as Cicero finished speaking, Marcus opened his mouth.
“Excuse me for being presumptuous, but may I say something about this situation?”
“Oh, of course. Anything that helps in this situation is welcome.”
No one would ignore Marcus’s idea, who had brought many benefits to the Senate so far.
He cleared his throat and calmly reviewed the current situation.
“First of all, the current situation is not good at all. In fact, it’s not an exaggeration to say it’s the worst. But thanks to my father’s recovery and active participation in politics, we haven’t been completely cornered into a dead end. If we couldn’t nominate good candidates, the aristocratic faction wouldn’t have gotten a single magistrate position.”
“That’s true… It must have been Jupiter’s help that Crassus recovered in time.”
“But that’s not enough. We don’t have enough time. If the election is held now, we will lose a hundred out of a hundred times. So let’s postpone the election. Even if we delay the election by two months, we will have enough time to appeal to the citizens.”
“But what excuse are we going to use to postpone the election?”
“I heard there was an assassination attempt while I was in Egypt. We can use that as an excuse.”
The eyes of the aristocratic senators lit up.
Thanks to burying it desperately in the Senate, it was not widely known, but there was one more thing that had turned the Senate upside down before Marcus said.
It was the assassination plot against Pompey.
The reason why it was not attempted but only plotted was because one of the conspirators went to Caesar and exposed the plot.
But there was no evidence and only suspicion, so Caesar did not publicize it.
The Senate side also had many people who saw assassination negatively, so there was a lot of criticism.
Even Cato drew a line, saying that assassination was a despicable act even if he was politically opposed.
Caesar did not think that the aristocratic faction had led the assassination either.
As long as there was no evidence, attacking someone with this would only backfire.
So the popular faction and the aristocratic faction tacitly agreed to cover up this assassination plot as a happening.
Marcus brought up that point again.
Cato frowned and asked.
“Won’t it be bad for us if we publicize the assassination plot?”
“No, it won’t. No matter how much we don’t get along with the popular faction, there won’t be many citizens who think we would try to assassinate them.
If they had such thoughts in the first place, they wouldn’t vote for us anyway. Don’t you all agree here that assassinating a fellow senator is an absurd thing to do?
We gather these opinions and make an official statement. We say that such a vile act as assassination is never tolerated and that we need to investigate to find the culprit. And we also issue an official condolence statement to Pompey, who must have felt threatened.”
“You mean we should act first so we don’t get suspected.”
“Yes. And use this as an excuse to naturally delay the election. Do you know why we’ve been pushed back by the popular faction so far?”
Marcus looked at each of the aristocratic senators and made eye contact.
No one answered right away.
Cicero, who received Marcus’s gaze last, answered with an uncertain tone.
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