Pompeius’ Career from 79 to 70 BCE: Constitutional, Political and Historical Considerations

Abstract

Cn. Pompeius Magnus is undoubtedly best known for his great commands of 67 and 66 BCE and his subsequent role as ally, then enemy, of Iulius Caesar. Nonetheless, comprehensive scrutiny of Pompeius’ track record from 79 to 70 BCE reveals that this was perhaps the most remarkable and ground breaking stage of his career. In 78, in the face of yet another civil war, the Senate charged Rome’s first ever eques triumphalis with an independent propraetorian commission, under the auspices of the consul Q. Lutatius Catulus. In 77, Pompeius flatly ignored Catulus’ direct orders to disband his army, eager to secure a major role in the war against Sertorius and his Spanish associates. After a long and acerbic debate, the Senate eventually decided to have the People appoint Pompeius to an extraordinary proconsulship. By virtue of an unprecedented provision, the equestrian proconsul was, moreover, authorized to command in Spain on an equal footing with the consular proconsul Metellus Pius, the princeps ciuitatis of the time. In 71, Pompeius boldly decided to stand for the consulship of 70, in collusion with M. Licinius Crassus. As he ran on a decidedly popular platform and, once again, refused to disband his legions, the conscript Fathers had little choice but to grant dispensation from the Cornelian Law as well as a second public triumph. This paper will argue that, in political and constitutional terms, Pompeius played an instrumental role in burying Sulla’s constitutional settlement, and that his extraordinary career in the seventies BCE set a fateful example for the next couple of decades.

Crassus’ Command in the War against Spartacus (73–71 BCE): His Official Position, Forces and Political Spoils

“…Crassus' ovation, not triumph, for the victory over Spartacus defines his inferiority in status to his colleague, the triumphator Pompey." 111 See Vervaet (2009) 426 f. for the fact that Pompeius had been flirting with popularis agitators since 73 BCE at the latests. Just as Pompeius' brazen candidacy for the consulship prompted Crassus to follow suit, he as consul also took the lead in realizing such ‚anti-Sullan‚ measures as the full restoration of tribunicia potestas and the return of the standing quaestiones to the equites (Plut.…”

“…22.3), Crassus again joining in out of political calculation. Quite amazingly, a number of fine scholars have gone out of their way to excuse Crassus and especially Pompeius' course of action in 71/70: see Vervaet (2009) 426-428. In her thought-provoking treatise on "Roman Republics" ([2010] 135), Flower makes the interesting observation that "Sulla's republic should be considered a separate constitutional system in its own right, a sixth republic, albeit one that lasted in its original form for barely a decade: in the year 70, the consuls Pompey and Crassus introduced major changes to Sulla's carefully conceived system."…”

“… command against Sertorius as an extraordinary proconsul: seeVervaet (2009) 406-414 & 425, and id., Si neque leges neque mores cogunt. Beyond the Spectacle of Pompeius Magnus' Public Triumphs, in: C. H. Lange/F.…”

Roman Politics in the 70sb.c.: a Story of Realignments?

“…see Twyman 1972: 82–5. For a negative assessment of Pompey's political strategy in the late 70s see Vervaet 2009: 423–33.…”