The Roman triumvirates

Front matter

V*

* .0

4 O s-

Chapter I. The Reaction Against Sulla's Legislation. —rise Of

POMPEIUS. r.c.

Working of the Roman republican constitution

Results of the Punic and Social wars

Monarchical power of Sulla . . .

Sulla and the Roman aristocracy

Sulla's idea of his own work

Results of Sulla's career . . • .

Effects of Roman conquests

Results of the extension of the franchise .

Growth of a military order

Roman jealousy of provincials . . .

Character of the Roman legionaries .

Early career of Pompeius, surnamed the Great

The consulship of Catulus and Lepidus

Death of Lepidus .....

Sertorius in Spain .....

Death of Sertorius and its consequences

The Servile war of Spartacus

The Mithridatic war ....

Defeat of Mithridates .... 69 Armenian war ......

PAGE

I

2 2

3 4 5 5 6 8 9

9 10

12 13 13 15

16 18 20 21

VI

Contents.

Chapter II

ASCENDENCY OF POMPEIUS. — HIS SUBJUGATION OF THE CILICIAN PIRATES, AND CONQUESTS IN THE EAST,

B.C. PAGE

24 26 27 29

Popularity of Pompeius .....

Purging of the senate by the censors .

Extent of piracy in the Mediterranean

The Gabinian law ......

67 Success of Pompeius against the Cilician pirates

Investment of Pompeius with supreme command the East . . . , .

Effects of Roman ascendency in the East 63 Overthrow and death of Mithridates .

Extent of Roman supremacy in the East

C. Julius Caesar ....

Motions of the tribune Cornelius

Caesar's aedileship 65 Caesar impeaches Rabirius 63 Caesar chief pontiff ....

in

39 41 42

Chapter III

STATE OF PARTIES IN THE CITY.— CONSULSHIP OF CICERO, AND CONSPIRACY OF CATILINA.

Leaders of the nobles M. Porcius Cato M. Tullius Cicero Conspiracy of Catilina 63 Cicero becomes consul

Preparations of the conspirators The conspiracy detected .

Catilina driven out of Rome

43 44 46

47 48

49 51 52

Contents.

vu

The conspirators betrayed and arrested

The conspirators condemned by the senate

Their execution ....

62 Defeat and death of Catilina

Cicero in controversy with Cato 62 Intrigues and disturbances in the city

Cicero takes his part with the oligarchy

Crassus purchases the alliance of Caesar

61 Clodius profanes the mysteries of the Bona Dea

62 Policy of Pompeius on his return to Rome 61 Triumph of Pompeius .... 60 Pompeius becomes unpopular with the senate and the

53 54 56 56 58 59 61 62

63 64

66 66

Chapter IV. The First Triumvirate Of C^sar, Pompeius, And Crassus

Caesar in his province, the Further Spain . . .67

60 Caesar sues for the consulship 69

Caesar reconciles Crassus and Pompeius . . .70

60 The First Triumvirate 70

Views of the triumvirs respectively . . . .71

The leaders of the nobles 72

Cicero and Cato 73

Caesar attains the consulship 74

59 Caesar's violent measures in the consulship . . 75

Caesar's favor with the people . . . . . 7^ Precarious position of Cicero . » . . ■> 7^ Ambitious policy of Caesar . .... 77

Illyricum, with the Cisalpine and Transalpine Gaul,

assigned to Caesar for his province for five years . 79

58 Clodius, the tribune, threatens Cicero with impeachment ......... 80 viii CoJttents.

BC

PAGB

58 Clodius obtains the banishment of Cicero . . .81 Cato appointed to a dishonorable mission against the

king of Cyprus 83

The triumvirs combine to put down Clodius and recall

Cicero from banishment ?>'i

57 Return of Cicero 85

Chapter V

C/ESAR'S conquest of GAUL.— death OF CRASSUS AND DISSO- LUTION OF THE FIRST TRIUMVIRATE.

Cgesar's conquest of Gaul ...... 86

5S Cresar's first campaign . . . ^ . . 87

He checks the movement of the Helvetii . . .88 Repulses the Suevi ....... 88

Cossar's second campaign against the Belgic tribes . 89 Third campaign against the Veneti . . . .89

55 Fourth campaign : crossing of the Rhine and invasion

Second descent on Britain ...... 89

Caesar concerts with the triumvirs at Lucca . . 90

57 An extraordinary commission assigned to Pompeius . 91

56 Proposed restoration of the king of Egypt . . .91 Disturbances in the city . , . . . .92

56 Caesar again at Lucca. Impending crisis of the free-state ......... 92

54 Caesar's command extended for a second term of five

years 93

Death of Julia 94

54 Relative position of the triumvirs at this period . . 95

54 Ciassus proconsul in Syria ..... 95

53 Battle of Carrhx 96

Contents.

IX

53 Caesar's peril in Gaul : sixth year of the Gallic war

Ascendency of Pompeius in the senate 52 Mile slays Clodius 52 Pompeius appointed sole consul

Trial of Milo .... 52 Seventh year of the Gallic war .

Gallant resistance of Vercingetorix 51 Final conquest of Gaul

Feeble measures of Pompeius .

Caesar's organization of Gaul

Caesar organizes his military resources in Gaul

Csesar's levies in Gaul ....

97 98

99 99

lOI

Chapter VI. Rupture Between C^sar And The Senate

Csesar's position assailed by the senatorial party 51 Cicero proconsul of Cilicia

Caesar secures support by bribery

The senate strengthen their military resources 50 Curio baffles the motion for Caesar's recall . 50 Pompeius falls sick at Naples . .

Csesar's demands

Vacillation of the senate .

Curio urges Caesar to decisive action 49 The tribunes fly to Caesar's camp

Caesar appeals to arms

Lucan's estimate of the causes of the civil war

Division of sovereignty among the three rulers

Rivalry of Pompeius and Caesar

Luxury and vices of the times .

Monarchy a consummation plainly inevitable

Contents.

FAGK

Sentiments conveyed in " Sallust's letters to Caesar " . 127 Caesar's pretensions regarded with favor by provincials,

subjects, and foreigners . . . . .128

Caesar on his return to Italy . . . . .129

Chapter VII

THE CIVIL WAR.— BATTLE OF PHARSALIA. — DEATH OF POM PEIUS. — DEATH OF CATO.

Preparations of Pompeius and the consuls .

Caesar crosses the Rubicon

Fompeius retires from Rome

The cities of Central Italy surrender to Caesar

Pompeius makes his escape from Italy

Pompeius throws himself on his resources in the East

Caesar repairs to Rome ....

Caesar seizes the treasure in the temple of Saturn

Curio is slain in Africa ....

Caesar conquers the Pompeian forces in Spain

Caesar is created dictator .

Importance of his fiscal measures

Caesar establishes regular government and then ab dicates ......

48 Caesar crosses the Adriatic

Csesar checked before Petra

Both armies manaeuvre in Thessaly 48 Battle of Pharsalia . . . .

The loss on both sides ....

Pompeius seeks refuge in Egypt, and is there dered

Caesar establishes himself at Alexandria 47 Campaign against Phamaces

131 132 132

133 134

135 136

137 139 139

140 141 142

143 143 144

145 146

Contents. xi

Disturbances in Italy ....

47 Csesar dictator a second time 46 Csesar at Rome and third time dictator

Mutiny of the Tenth Legion suppressed

The republicans transfer their forces to Africa 46 Caesar's victory at Thapsus

Death of Cato at Utica ....

Character of Cato of Utica

Chapter VIII. Tyranny And Death Of C^sar

Honors conferred upon Caesar at Rome

The title of Imperator prefixed ....

Csesar celebrates four triumphs ....

Csesar's liberality to soldiers and citizens .

The Julian Forum ......

45 War in Spain and battle of Munda .

The Roman Calendar requires correction .

The reformed or Julian Calendar

Measures for extending the franchise, increasing the senate, &c. ...

Appointment to offices .....

Csesar founds colonies .....

Further projects. Survey of the empire

Codification of the law .....

Csesar projects the extension of the walls, &c. . .

Abortive attempts to give Csesar the title of king

Conspiracy against Csesar ..... 44 C^sar assassinated, March 15 ....

Remarks on the character of Julius Csesar .

Xll

Contents.

Chapter IX. Caius Octavius Succeeds To The Inheritance

C^SAR.

B.C.

Antonius makes his escape

Antonius seized on Caesar's papers and effects

Antonius as consul convenes the senate

An amnesty decreed, March 17

Antonius master of the situation

Caesar's funeral ....

Popular excitement against the liberators

M. Antonius takes command in the city

" The tyranny still survives " . 44 C. Octavius arrives in Italy

He assumes Caesar's inheritance 44 Cicero declaims against Antonius

OF JULIUS

183 184 184 185 188

Chapter X. The Second Triumvirate : Octavius, Antonius, And Lepidus

44 Octavius ingratiates himself with the soldiers

General preparations for war in the north of Italy Cicero's political activity .....

44 The Second Philippic

43 The consuls Hiriius and Pansa take the field

43 Both the consuls fall before Mutina .

Antonius unites with Lepidus and Plancus

43 Octavius demands the consulship Flight and death of Decimus Brutus .

43 The Second Triumvirate .....

Division of the provinces among the triumvirs , The proscriptions

190 191 192

193 194

197 198 199 201 202

Contents. xiii

B.C. PAGE

43 Death of Cicero . . . . . . . 202

Reflections on the death of Cicero .... 204

42 Settlement of the triumvirs' g(jvernment at Rome . 205

Chapter XI. Last Effort Of The Repurlicans : The Battle Of Philippi

Independence of the Roman armies in the East . . 206 Roman society at Athens ...... 207

The natural repulsion of the Ea^t from the West . 208

Meeting of Brutus and Cassius at Sardis . . . 209

42 The battle of Philippi 210

Death of Cassius . . . . . . .211

Second battle, and death of Brutus . . . .212

The end of the Roman republic .... 213

Chapter XII

CONTEST BETWEEN OCTAVIUS AND ANTONIUS. — BATTLE OF ACTIUM. — OCTAVIUS BECOMES MASTER OF THE STATE.

42 Further division of the provinces .... 214

Cleopatra's conquest of Antonius .... 215

War of Perusia . . . . . . . .216

A third partition of the empire . . . . .217

The triumvirs concert terms with Sextus and again

resort to arms against him . . . . .218

37 Battle of Naulochus 219

37 Renewal of the triumvirate . . . . .219

36 Fall of Lepidus . 219

36 Disastrous campaign of Antonius against the Parthians 220

XIV

Contents.

Impending rupture between the triumvirs .

33 Antonius amuses himself at Alexandria

33 Preparations for a struggle

32 The triumvirate expires and is not renewed

31 Forces assembled on the coast of Epirus .

31 Battle of Actium .....

Octavius secures the fruit of his ^^ctory Despair of Antonius and Cleopatra at Alexandria Antonius kills himself ....

Death of Cleopatra .

Concluding remarks .....

Index

FAGB 221

MAP.

\ The Roman Empire at the close of the Republic.

To face Title- page

THE

ROMAN TRIUMVIRATES.

Chapter I. The Reaction Against Sulla's Legislation. — Rise Of Pompeius

The Roman republic maintained itself for a period of nearly five hundred years ; and this has been commonly regarded as a striking instance of the vitality of free institutions. But such an idea can of the only be admitted with much abatement. ^bHc^n^" The polity of the conquering city was in fact constimill-fitted for duration, for it was essentially the government of the many by the few, of a commonalty by a nobility, of an unarmed multitude by an armed order, of subjects in many lands by their victors in one central position. It was only by the happy circumstances under which the lower classes were from time to time elevated, in spite of all resistance, into the ranks of the governors, that this inequality was not redressed by violence, and the commonwealth overthrown by revolution. It was only by the occasional suppression of the free state, and the creation of a temporary dictator, that

2 2he Roman Triumvirates. ch. i.

the balance of power was at many a critical moment maintained.

When the conquering race at Rome had made itself master of Italy, and a single state held sway over a ^ , , , number of subject communities, the time

Results of the -' , '

Punic and was almost come for the appointment of a

permanent ruler. Probably the rivalry of Carthage and the invasion of Hannibal, by drawing all classes at Rome, and most of her allies and dependents, more closely together, postponed the inevitable event. After the fall of Hannibal and Carthage the ascendency of the Scipios, first in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of their countrymen, seemed to point more clearly to such a solution. Once more the wars in the East, and the brilliant conquests of Greece and Asia, diverted men's thoughts to new aspirations, and the era of monarchy was not yet. Under the Gracchi the spirit of impending monarchy again loomed visibly ; again the struggle of the Social War averted the consummation. From this time the Roman constitution was proved to be impracticable. It would not work. The sovereign power was disputed openly between the leaders of two rival armies, who barely deigned to avow themselves the heads of two domestic parties.

When Sulla gained the ascendency, he made himself

a king under the title of perpetual dictator. He resigned

this power, indeed, but he had not the less

Monarchical , . , . _ ...

power of made It his own. It was his smgular ambi-

tion to re-establish the free state by personal caprice and open force, and to found a republican constitution upon a monarchical revolution. He failed. The fabric he set up was a mere shadow, which hardly for a moment disguised the fact that the real government of Rome must henceforth rest in the hands of her strongest

CH. I. Abdication of Sulla. 3

citizen. The history of the Roman Triumvirates is the history of the brief interval during which this shadow of a free state still hovered before men's eyes, while the permanent establishment of imperial sovereignty was only delayed by the nearly equal forces of the chiefs who contended for it. Sixteen years after the death of Sulla the governm-ent was virtually shared between three military rulers, who formed what has been called the First Triumvirate. Seventeen years later a similar compact was renewed, and more definite powers were assumed, by a second Triumvirate. Thirteen years later the commonwealth of Rome had fallen actually under the sway of a single despot, who styled himself emperor. The period of which the following chapters treat comprises forty-six years, from the death of Sulla to the crowning victory of Augustus.

Sulla could have given no greater proof of confidence in the stability of his work than by abdicating his personal power, and leaving the commonwealth to be guided by the political principles he had ^ ,,

"^ . . Sulla t.nd

established. He believed that an oligarchy the Roman of wealth and station could govern Rome, ^"^ ocracy. and maintain the position in which he had replaced it. It was sufficient in his view to launch the Optimate?>, the self-styled best or noblest, of the city freely on the career which he had opened for them, by suppressing the rival powers of the tribunate, and making them supreme in the comitia, uncheciced in the administration of the provinces, and commanders of the national armies. He was not aware that in fact the authority which he had exercised had depended solely on his own personal ability, and that the aristocracy had no vital force of its own to make use of the high position he had regained for it. It had indeed no hold upon the nation, no confidence in

B

4 The Roman Triumviraies. CH. i.

itself; it was at the moment singularly deficient in men of commanding eminence. It had in fact survived its vital powers, and the forces which had grown up around it both in the city and the provinces had already passed bevond its proper control. Sulla Avas himself a man of extraordinary genius. He had been backed by an irresistible militar}^ force, and he had encountered the popular party at a moment when it was demoralized by its own bloody excesses. But it was only under these exceptional circumstances that the aristocracy had gained a transient success. It was unable to maintain its vantage ground. The abdication of Sulla may have hastened its fall, but the fall was from the first inevitable.

The great dictator had relied also upon the principles of Roman polity, which he considered himself to have re-established. Sulla was not the last, nor, perhaps, was ^ „ , , he the first of the Romans who imagined

Sulla s idea

of his own that he could restore the commonwealth, and replace it upon a lasting foundation, by arresting its natural course of development, and forcing it back into the channel which had proved too narrow for it. He dreamt that the provinces, now widely extended through three continents, peopled by numerous colonies of Roman extraction, teeming with the interests of a multitude of Roman citizens engaged in every branch of art and commerce, could be held in hand by an official oligarchy of public men, as in the old days when the dominions of the republic were all comprised within a circle of a few days' journey from the city. His thoughts reverted to the period when the plebeians of Rome were really inferior in rank and power to the patricians, when they were regarded and treated as of lower origin, and their pretensions to equal privileges scouted with disdain. He would deny them the pro-

CH. I. Need of a Commander-in- Chief. 5

tection of their tribunes now, when they had become substantially the ruling power in the state, and it was through the tribunes that their power was exercised. Sulla was a fanatic. He believed in his own good fortune ; he believed in the fortune of Rome. He was ready to pit Rome and himself against the world. He entertained no doubt that Rome, restored to the political condition in which, in his view, she had been most prosperous, and restored under his own victorious auspices, was destined to control all the changes of circumstance around her, and rise triumphant over every foreign or domestic enemy. The notion that Sulla resigned his power in petulance, or in despair of establishing the reactionary policy to which he had devoted himself, seems to be founded in an entire misconception of his character. He was a fanatic, and he abdicated in sublime complacency at the enduring success which he fully believed himself to have achieved.

The work effected by the great dictator

•' ,^ Results of

did in fact lay the foundation of the long Sulla's civil wars and the political revolutions which followed.

I. The definite establishment of the Roman power throughout Greece and Mac(idonia- and a great part of Asia Minor, by the victories of their great military leader, rendered it necessary to maintain a large

^ ^ Effects of

standmg army permanently quartered at a Roman condistance from the capital. This mercenary ^^^^ ^' force could only be held by one paramount commander, and to this generalissimo it was necessary to entrust the appointment of every subordinate officer, the power of making war or peace along an immense frontier, the levying of contributions from a vast array of provinces and of dependent states, and to allow him to prolong his

6 The Roman Triumvirates. ch. i.

command from year to year almost without reference to his legitimate masters in the city. The transfer of such a command from one pro-consul to another, accompanied by the displacement of a horde of servants and clients, the frustration of sanguine hopes, the excitement of irregular ambitions, was in itself a revolution, and could hardly fail to lead to a civil war.

2. The progress of events had hitherto tended towards the enfranchisement of the provinces, and the assimilation of the subjects of the city to her native citizens. The Social War had resulted in the admission of the free population of all Italy to the civil rights of the Romans. A precedent had been set which could not

fail to be followed, and which must even- Results of the extensi n of tually lead to the nicorporation of the whole

the iranchise. c . . , . t^.- i i j

mass of provincials in one political body. The right indeed of voting at the elections of magistrates was still practically restricted to the citizens who resided at the centre of affairs, for there was no more sacred principle among the Romans than that of confining all civil transactions to the very spot on which the auspices could be taken, which was itself at the centre of the city. But the Roman franchise entitled its possessor to a share in the functions of general administration. It was slowly and gradually that the Italians and other foreign citizens obtained a footing oh the ladder of civic honors ; but under the command of the Roman Proconsul and Imperator they engrossed a large part of the military appointments throughout the provinces, together with all the fiscal employments. The knights, whether of Roman or Italian origin, became largely interested in commerce, and settled abroad in the pursuit of wealth, placing their local knowledge and their cajiital at the service of the government in the farming of its revenues and manage-

CH. I. Enfranchisement of Provincials. 7

ment of its resources. Not only were the provincials thus placed at the mercy of the military establishment of their conquerors, but all the most lucrative employments among them were seized by financial agents of the central government. Roman citizens fastened themselves upon every limb of the great body of the empire, and sucked its blood at every pore. It only remained to secure the fruits of these exclusive privileges, and to invest the enjoyment of them with practical irresponsibility. When the provinces complained of the oppressions under which they suffered, they found indeed ready ears among the rival parties in the state. Every proconsul and every subordinate agent abroad had his personal enemies at home, who were prepared to listen to the charges which the sufferers made against them. The great object of the class of Optimates was to secure to themselves the administration of justice in the city, and confine the appointment of judges, in cases of provincial malversation, to men of the senatorial order. The commons, on the other hand, represented for the most part by the Equites, or horsemen, the bulk of whom ranked with the plebeians, contended for a share in these offices ; and one of the most constant and vital contests of classes within the city for many years was whether the fudicia should be confined to the senators or extended to the knights also. Sulla had excluded the lower order from any place in this important department of administration. But the provincials chafed under the ascendency of the Optimates, as that from which they had hitherto suffered most sensibly. They were disposed to lend their weight to any movement in favor of the plebeian faction at home, which they regarded as more favorable to their interests, as less rigid and exclusive in its ideas of government, as imbued on the whole with

8 • The Roman Triumvirates. ch, i.

the principles of a cosmopolitan policy, and which led them to indulge at least in some indefinite hopes ot future advantage to themselves. The leaders of the popular party at Rome had always shown themselves more inclined to favor and employ them than their rivals. The popular party had itself owed its rise to more liberal principles of government, and as the aristocrats exhibited under Sulla's supremacy a narrower and more selfish spirit than ever, so did the democrats rally round themselves all the classes at home and abroad which aspired to a fuller enjoyment of Roman privileges and advantages.

3. But under the fair surface of a polity of ranks and classes, there had now grown up a power almost independent of nobles and commons, of Romans military and provincials. The real control of gov-

ernment rested with the army. In the conduct of her distant and incessant wars, the republic of the Scipios and the Gracchi had created an instrument which had become too strong for civil restraints at the liands either of the senate or of the popular assemblies. The ancient military constitution of Rome had rested on the annual enlistment of all its able-bodied citizens for the defence of its frontier against enemies who lay almost beneath its walls. The Roman legions were a militia enrolled practically for home service only. Their annual campaigns lasted for a few months, after which the soldier-citizen returned to his farm or his counter, and received there the solicitations of candidates for the next elections. The long wars of Italy, in which the Roman people had contended against the Gauls, the Samnites, and the Etruscans, against Hannibal and Pyrrhus, against the united forces of the Italian nations, had compelled their government to enlist its citizens for

CH. I. Influence of a Standing Ar?ny. 9

a term of years. The legionary had long ceased to exercise his vote in the Campus, and had come to disregard his civil functions as a citizen, while he looked to the profession of arms as the road to emoluments and honors, as the object of his pride and interest. He had already become a source of danger to the civil government, when the progress of his conquests removed him to distant shores ; and while this distance alienated him more and more from his native land, it deprived him at least of any immediate means of affronting and injuring her.

As long, indeed, as the legions continued to be supplied by recruits drawn from Rome herself, or even from the Roman colonies in Italy or the neighboring provinces, the metropolis might rely with some confidence onthedeep-rootedattachmentof her people, _

^ . . f f > Roman

and on the principles of domestic obedience jealousy of which the genuine citizen could not without P>^ovmcias, difficulty shake off, however far removed from her, however long disused to her control. He still prided himself on his connection with the ruling race, and still regarded himself as a being of a higher order than the Italian or the provincial who served as an auxiliary in the cohorts that fought beside him.

This feeling of pride Marius had materially weakened by destroying the distinction of classes, and calling upon the proletarians from the lowest order of the ^,

'■ Character of

State to assist in her conquests. From the theRom^n time of the exhausting wars against the Cimbri and the Teutones, the Roman soldier had ceased to represent the aristocracy of Rome, and to share its prejudices. He had no stake in his own country ; he was a man without a country, which, among the settled communities of the ancient world, was relo Tlic Roman Triumviraies. CH. i.

garded as something strange and portentous. And so, indeed, it was a portent of change and revolution, of violence and rapine. The Roman legionary, thus drawn from the dregs of the populace, and quartered through the best years of his life in Greece and Asia, in Spain and Gaul, lived solely upon his pay, enhanced by extortion or plunder. His thirst of rapine grew upon him. He required his chiefs to indulge him with the spoil of cities and provinces ; and when a foreign enemy was not at hand, he was tempted to turn against the subjects of the state, or, if need be, against the state itself. The regular military chest was too quickly exhausted by the ordinary expenses of the military establishment. Often the troops could not even be brought into the field except by the sacrifice of some helpless community, against which a quarrel was picked for no other purpose but to enable the Imperator to mobilize his legions. But no prey was so glittering as Italy and Rome itself; and towards their own native shores the eyes of the greedy le^^ionaries were now too frequently directed, while their chiefs were themselves equally eager to strike at the centre of government for the highest prizes which the republic could bestow. Marius and Sulla, Cinna and Carbo had led the forces of Rome against Rome herself, in the predatory spirit of the Cimbri and the Teutoncs before, of the Goths and the Vandals some centuries afterwards. Rome, at the very height of her material power, in the full career of her foreign conquests, lay as completely at the mercy of the true barbarians of that age as when she was helpless to avert the inroads of an Alaric or an Attila.

The problem which thus presented itself

Early cireer of Pompcius s

Great- ' "^ avert the impending dissolution of their

Early cireer of • i r • i

Pompcius sur- to tlic muids of patnots — how, namely, to

B.C. yS. Chief s of the Senatorial Paiiy . ii

polity under the blows of their own defenders — was indeed an anxious and might well appear a hopeless one. It was to the legions only that they could trust, and the legions were notoriously devoted to their chiefs, to whom, indeed, they had sworn the military oath, rather than to the civil administration and principles of law, in which they could take no interest. The triumph of Sulla had been secured by the accession to his side of Pompeius Strabo, the commander of a large force quartered in Italy. These troops had transferred their obedience to a younger Pompeius, the son of their late leader. Under his auspices they had gained many victories ; they had put down the Marian faction, headed by Carbo, in Sicily, and had finally secured the ascendency of the senate on the shores of Africa. Sulla had evinced some jealousy of their captain, who was young in years, and as yet had not risen above the rank of Eques ; but when Pompeius led his victorious legions back to Italy, the people rose in the greatest enthusiasm to welcome him, and the dictator, yielding to their impetuosity, had granted him a triumph and hailed him with the title of " Magnus." Young as he was, he became at once, on the abdication of Sulla, the greatest power in the commonwealth. This he soon caused to be known and felt.