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Julius Caesar
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=== First consulship === {{further|First Triumvirate}} After the elections, Caesar reconciled Pompey and Crassus, two political foes, in a three-way alliance misleadingly<ref>{{harvnb|Morstein-Marx|2021|p=119|ps=. "[A]n alliance which in modern times has come, quite misleadingly, to be called the 'First Triumvirate'... the very phrase... invokes a misleading teleology. Furthermore, it is almost impossible to use [it] without adopting some version of the view that it was a kind of conspiracy against the republic".}}</ref> termed the "First Triumvirate" in modern times.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Ridley |first=R |year=1999 |title=What's in the Name: the so-called First Triumvirate |journal=Arctos: Acta Philological Fennica |volume=33 |pages=133β44 |url=https://journal.fi/arctos/article/download/85987/44908 }} The first usage of the term was in 1681.</ref> Caesar was still at work in December of 60 BC attempting to find allies for his consulship and the alliance was finalised only some time around its start.{{sfn|Gruen|2009|p=31}} Pompey and Crassus joined in pursuit of two respective goals: the ratification of [[Pompey's eastern settlement]] and the bailing out of tax farmers in Asia, many of whom were Crassus' clients. All three sought the extended patronage of land grants, with Pompey especially seeking the promised land grants for his veterans.<ref>{{harvnb|Gruen|2009|p=31}}; {{harvnb|Morstein-Marx|2021|pp=121β22|ps=, noting that the Senate had approved distribution of lands to Pompey's veterans from the [[Sertorian War]] all the way back in 70 BC.}}</ref> Caesar's first act was to [[Acta Diurna|publish]] the minutes of the Senate and the assemblies, signalling the Senate's accountability to the public. He then brought in the Senate a bill β crafted to avoid objections to previous land reform proposals and any indications of radicalism β to purchase property from willing sellers to distribute to Pompey's veterans and the urban poor. It would be administered by a board of twenty (with Caesar excluded), and financed by Pompey's plunder and territorial gains.{{sfn|Gruen|2009|p=32}} Referring it to the Senate in hope that it would take up the matter to show its beneficence for the people,{{sfn|Morstein-Marx|2021|pp=125β29}} there was little opposition and the obstructionism that occurred was largely unprincipled, firmly opposing it not on grounds of public interest but rather opposition to Caesar's political advancement.{{sfn|Gruen|2009|p=32}} Unable to overcome Cato's filibustering, he moved the bill before the people and, at a public meeting, Caesar's co-consul Bibulus threatened a permanent veto for the entire year. This clearly violated the people's well-established legislative sovereignty{{sfn|Morstein-Marx|2021|pp=130, 132}} and triggered a riot in which Bibulus' fasces were broken, symbolising popular rejection of his magistracy.{{sfn|Morstein-Marx|2021|p=138}} The bill was then voted through. Bibulus attempted to induce the Senate to nullify it on grounds it was passed by violence and contrary to the auspices but the Senate refused.{{sfn|Morstein-Marx|2021|pp=139β40}} Caesar also brought and passed a one-third write-down of tax farmers' arrears for Crassus and ratification of Pompey's eastern settlements. Both bills were passed with little or no debate in the Senate.{{sfn|Wiseman|1994|p=372}} Caesar then moved to extend his agrarian bill to Campania some time in May; this may be when Bibulus withdrew to his house.{{sfn|Morstein-Marx|2021|pp=143 (Bibulus), 147 (dating to May)}} Pompey, shortly thereafter, also wed Caesar's daughter Julia to seal their alliance.{{sfn|Wiseman|1994|p=374}} An ally of Caesar's, plebeian tribune [[Publius Vatinius]] moved the ''[[lex Vatinia]]'' assigning the provinces of [[Illyricum (Roman province)|Illyricum]] and [[Cisalpine Gaul]] to Caesar for five years.{{sfn|Drogula|2019|p=137}}<ref>{{harvnb|Gruen|2009|p=33}}, noting that the {{lang|la|lex Vatinia}} was "no means unprecedented... or even controversial".</ref> Suetonius' claim that the Senate had assigned to Caesar the {{lang|la|silvae callesque}} ("woods and tracks") is likely an exaggeration: fear of Gallic invasion had grown in 60 BC and it is more likely that the consuls had been assigned to Italy, a defensive posture that Caesarian partisans dismissed as "mere 'forest tracks'".<ref>{{harvnb|Morstein-Marx|2021|p=175}}, citing {{Cite journal |last=Balsdon |first=J P V D |date=1939 |title=Consular provinces under the late Republic β II. Caesar's Gallic command |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/297143 |journal=Journal of Roman Studies |volume=29 |pages=167β83 |doi=10.2307/297143 |jstor=297143 |s2cid=163892529 |issn=0075-4358}} Moreover, Caesar's eventual provinces of Trans- and Cisalpine Gaul had been assigned to the consuls of 60 and therefore would have been unavailable. {{Cite journal |last=Rafferty |first=David |date=2017 |title=Cisalpine Gaul as a consular province in the late Republic |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/45019257 |journal=Historia: Zeitschrift fΓΌr Alte Geschichte |volume=66 |issue=2 |pages=147β172 |doi=10.25162/historia-2017-0008 |jstor=45019257 |s2cid=231088284 |issn=0018-2311}}</ref> The Senate was also persuaded to assign to Caesar [[Transalpine Gaul]] as well, subject to annual renewal, most likely to control his ability to make war on the far side of the Alps.{{sfnm|Morstein-Marx|2021|1pp=176β77|Gruen|2009|2p=34}} Some time in the year, perhaps after the passing of the bill distributing the Campanian land<ref>{{harvnb|Morstein-Marx|2021|p=143}}: {{harvnb|Dio|loc=38.6.5}} and {{harvnb|Suet. ''Iul.''|loc=20.1}} say around late January; {{harvnb|Plut. ''Pomp.''|loc=48.5}} says in early May; {{harvnb|Vell. Pat.|loc=2.44.5}} says May.</ref> and after these political defeats, Bibulus withdrew to his house. There, he issued edicts in absentia, purporting unprecedentedly to cancel all days on which Caesar or his allies could hold votes for religious reasons.{{sfn|Morstein-Marx|2021|pp=142β44}} Cato too attempted symbolic gestures against Caesar, which allowed him and his allies to "feign victimisation"; these tactics were successful in building revulsion to Caesar and his allies through the year.<ref>{{harvnb|Gruen|2009|p=34|ps=, also citing {{harvnb|Suet. ''Iul.''|loc=20.2}} β the "consulship of Julius and Caesar" β as part of Catonian propaganda.}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Morstein-Marx|2021|pp=150β51|ps=, noting that Bibulus' voluntary seclusion "presented the image of the city dominated by one man [Caesar]... unchecked by a colleague".}}</ref> This opposition caused serious political difficulties to Caesar and his allies, belying the common depiction of triumviral political supremacy.{{sfn|Gruen|2009|p=34}} Later in the year, however, Caesar β with the support of his opponents β brought and passed the {{lang|la|[[lex Julia de repetundis]]}} to crack down on provincial corruption.{{sfn|Drogula|2019|pp=138β39, noting Cato's support of Caesar's anti-corruption bill and the possibility that Cato gave input for some of its provisions}} When his consulship ended, Caesar's legislation was challenged by two of the new praetors but discussion in the Senate stalled and was regardless dropped. He stayed near the city until some time around mid-March.<ref>{{harvnb|Morstein-Marx|2021|pp=182β83, 182 n. 260}}, citing {{harvnb|Suet. ''Iul.''|loc=23.1}}; pace {{harvnb|Ramsey|2009|p=38}}.</ref>
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