Crassus-Caesar party was Cicero, who acted as spokesman for the Optimates and succeeded in having the whole proposal thrown out. One thing is clear—in every direction the once indolent aristocrat was now, at the age of thirty-six, maneuvering legally or illegally to grasp the reins of power.
Shortly after their defeat over the Egyptian affair Crassus and Caesar learned that the very man who had swayed the tide against them was standing for consul in the following year. It was natural that they should wish to block Cicero, Caesar out of irritation over Egypt and Crassus, in addition, because Cicero was one of the few men eligible for the consulship who owed no obligations, financial or otherwise, to the millionaire. Lucius Sergius Catilina (known to history as Catiline) a formidable and sinister figure who had been heavily involved in the plot to kill the two consuls, was himself proposed to stand as a candidate—with the backing of Crassus—as well as another creature of his, Caius Antonius. Yet despite the formidable power of money brought against him and despite the determined opposition of all those who were of the Crassus/Caesar faction, Cicero was triumphantly elected to the office. The Optimates had again succeeded in preventing a mockery being made of the consulship, even though Crassus managed to get one of his chosen candidates, Caius Antonius, elected as the second consul, with Catiline not far distant in the running—and therefore a possible hopeful for the following year.
The next move of the two conspirators (for such one must by now call them) was to support a bill of great importance and complexity about the redistribution of land—outside as well as in Italy, including Egypt, of all unlikely places since the senate had just firmly declared it to be no concern of the Roman people. One of the recently elected tribunes of the people (always of use to Caesar) P. Servilius Rullus proposed the new agrarian law, which, although it had good social aims, would have given Crassus and Caesar a power base that would have counterbalanced that of Pompey (who had now conquered Mithridates and annexed his large estates). For under the new law the land of the Ptolemies could have been annexed and ten special commissioners elected by the people. But only those who were present in Rome at the time could be eligible; Pompey, absent in the East, would not have been able to stand.
Cicero, as consul, had indicated that he would support the law if he felt that it was useful for the people, but when he attempted to attend one of the meetings of the tribunes he was received in such a violently hostile manner that he had to withdraw. Even if he had not already scented trouble in something in which Crassus and Caesar were so evidently involved, this would have been enough to convince him that the agrarian law was designed to increase the power of the two men whom he saw as the greatest threat to the republic. Cicero, although not a man of strong character, did possess some moral fiber. He genuinely believed in the republican institutions which most of the Optimates feebly upheld, but which he knew the popular party, with men like Caesar in it, were certain to destroy. He opposed Rullus’ bill in four speeches and, despite Caesar’s oratory and the wealth of Crassus against him, he managed to get it defeated. He was the greatest magistrate of the Roman Republic and a formidable adversary.
Caesar had lost, but he had made a great number of friends who would one day be useful to him, and he now set about yet another move on the political chessboard. At the beginning of 63 Metellus Pius, the pontifex maximusy died from illness. This highest religious office in the state normally went only to the most distinguished men, former consuls or great generals who had deserved well of the state. In this case it was widely believed that either Lutatius Catulus, that senior figure in the senate and leader of the Optimates , or Servilius
Shortly after their defeat over the Egyptian affair Crassus and Caesar learned that the very man who had swayed the tide against them was standing for consul in the following year. It was natural that they should wish to block Cicero, Caesar out of irritation over Egypt and Crassus, in addition, because Cicero was one of the few men eligible for the consulship who owed no obligations, financial or otherwise, to the millionaire. Lucius Sergius Catilina (known to history as Catiline) a formidable and sinister figure who had been heavily involved in the plot to kill the two consuls, was himself proposed to stand as a candidate—with the backing of Crassus—as well as another creature of his, Caius Antonius. Yet despite the formidable power of money brought against him and despite the determined opposition of all those who were of the Crassus/Caesar faction, Cicero was triumphantly elected to the office. The Optimates had again succeeded in preventing a mockery being made of the consulship, even though Crassus managed to get one of his chosen candidates, Caius Antonius, elected as the second consul, with Catiline not far distant in the running—and therefore a possible hopeful for the following year.
The next move of the two conspirators (for such one must by now call them) was to support a bill of great importance and complexity about the redistribution of land—outside as well as in Italy, including Egypt, of all unlikely places since the senate had just firmly declared it to be no concern of the Roman people. One of the recently elected tribunes of the people (always of use to Caesar) P. Servilius Rullus proposed the new agrarian law, which, although it had good social aims, would have given Crassus and Caesar a power base that would have counterbalanced that of Pompey (who had now conquered Mithridates and annexed his large estates). For under the new law the land of the Ptolemies could have been annexed and ten special commissioners elected by the people. But only those who were present in Rome at the time could be eligible; Pompey, absent in the East, would not have been able to stand.
Cicero, as consul, had indicated that he would support the law if he felt that it was useful for the people, but when he attempted to attend one of the meetings of the tribunes he was received in such a violently hostile manner that he had to withdraw. Even if he had not already scented trouble in something in which Crassus and Caesar were so evidently involved, this would have been enough to convince him that the agrarian law was designed to increase the power of the two men whom he saw as the greatest threat to the republic. Cicero, although not a man of strong character, did possess some moral fiber. He genuinely believed in the republican institutions which most of the Optimates feebly upheld, but which he knew the popular party, with men like Caesar in it, were certain to destroy. He opposed Rullus’ bill in four speeches and, despite Caesar’s oratory and the wealth of Crassus against him, he managed to get it defeated. He was the greatest magistrate of the Roman Republic and a formidable adversary.
Caesar had lost, but he had made a great number of friends who would one day be useful to him, and he now set about yet another move on the political chessboard. At the beginning of 63 Metellus Pius, the pontifex maximusy died from illness. This highest religious office in the state normally went only to the most distinguished men, former consuls or great generals who had deserved well of the state. In this case it was widely believed that either Lutatius Catulus, that senior figure in the senate and leader of the Optimates , or Servilius
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