Editing First Triumvirate (section)

==== Timing ====
Scholars have debated the specific date at which the alliance was formed.{{sfn|Gruen|1995|p=88}} [[Plutarch]], [[Livy]], and [[Appian]] placed the formation of the alliance before Caesar's election; [[Velleius Paterculus|Velleius]], [[Suetonius]] and [[Cassius Dio]] instead put its formation after his election.{{sfnm|Drogula|2019|1p=125|Gruen|1995|2pp=88 n. 18, 89 n. 20}}

During the elections to the consulship, Caesar certainly received support from both Pompey and Crassus, though "each for his own reasons... Crassus cultivated promising adherents[;] Pompey needed a strong figure in the consulship".{{sfn|Gruen|1995|p=88}} Against the later literary sources, however, a contemporaneous letter to Cicero, where Caesar asked to form a political alliance, also implies Caesar had not yet reconciled Pompey and Crassus by December of 60, months after his election in the summer.{{sfn|Gruen|1995|p=88}} Erich Gruen, in ''Last Generation of the Roman Republic'', believes this letter, combined with the fact that Pompey and Crassus would have alienated each-other with any overt support for Caesar's candidacy, places the alliance's formation decisively after Caesar's consular election.<ref>{{harvnb|Gruen|1995|pp=88–89|ps=. "The conjoining of forces... postdates the inception of Caesar's consulship... only after [Caesar] was safely voted into the consulship would he move to effect reconciliation".}}</ref> Some historians believe Caesar, in his letter to Cicero, may have been coy ("it may also be that Caesar was not yet showing Cicero all of his cards"{{sfn|Drogula|2019|p=126}}) but it did show that Caesar "was not specifically looking at building a triumvirate, but rather was looking to build as strong a coalition as possible".{{sfn|Drogula|2019|p=126}} This evidence – especially disclosure that a pact was sought{{sfn|Drogula|2019|p=126 n. 82}} – places the formation of the alliance some time between July 60 and January 59&nbsp;BC.{{sfn|Drogula|2019|p=127}}{{sfn|Millar|1998|p=124}}

The purpose of the alliance was to secure something that none of the three men could secure alone. If Pompey and Caesar aligned alone, they would not likely be able to overcome opposition to Pompey's proposals in the senate. Pompey and Crassus were personal rivals who could only align through an intermediary. Caesar was that intermediary.{{sfnm|Gruen|1995|1p=89|Drogula|2019|2p=126}} Crassus' motives are less clear. He must have wanted more than simply renegotiation of tax contracts. Crassus' additionally would be one of the administrators for the Pompeian land grants and, in doing so, "the preeminence which Crassus could not quite attain on his own [came] within his grasp".{{sfn|Gruen|1995|pp=89–90}} Caesar needed the alliance as well: he would fully become his own man, "escap[ing] the subordinate stature of Pompey's other ''amici''", defeat the political opposition, and win a profitable command.{{sfn|Gruen|1995|p=89}}