Rome must fall.

Chapter 393 Caesar Cuckolds Crassus

Another sentence praises Pompey as "a hero of the times."

What kind of achievements can be considered a hero of the times? Is it enough to wipe out pirates? ... Facing the cheering Roman people, Pompey felt that it was not enough. He had admired the great Alexander when he was a child. Now he felt that it was time to go to the East to win the great honor that the Romans had never thought of.

So, under his secret instructions, some senators who supported him put forward a suggestion at the Senate meeting: they hoped that Pompey would replace Lucullus and be responsible for commanding the war in the East.

At the same time, some of his supporters also made similar suggestions at the town hall meeting.

Although Lucullus continued to win victories in the East, this war, which had lasted for seven or eight years, seemed to have no end in sight and continued to consume Rome's wealth and the patience of its people.

And because of the propaganda of some people with ulterior motives, the people also learned that because Lucullus was too harsh on the soldiers, these Roman soldiers who had been fighting and marching in the far east and could not go home for many years, but could only receive pitifully low military pay, finally could not bear it anymore, and the entire army went on strike last winter!
Just at this time, Mithridates, who had been on the run, returned to Pontus and resumed his throne.

So the arrogant Lucullus lowered his head and, with tears in his eyes, begged the soldiers to take up their weapons again and continue to fight for Rome.

For most of the year, Lucullus had become a laughing stock in Rome as he struggled to cope with Mithridates and the disgruntled soldiers.

Among those who laughed at him were not only commoners, but also merchants and nobles.

Because when he was fighting in the eastern provinces, he severely dealt with the usurers and tax farmers, cutting off their way of accumulating huge wealth by exploiting the provincial people. These businessmen had close ties with some senators in the Roman Senate.

Lucullus had offended all classes in Rome, while Pompey, who had successfully eliminated the pirates, was at the peak of his power. Faced with this proposal, it was obvious what choice the Senate would make. Even Catullus, the chief senator who had always been wary of Pompey, voted in favor.

Not only did Pompey successfully become the new military commander of the Eastern provinces, but he also gained another right - the ability to randomly decide whether to continue the war with the enemy or to restore peace.

In the spring of 66 BC (the seventh year after the establishment of the Nix tribe), due to the tense relationship with the soldiers and his inability to command them in battle, Lucullus had to lead them to retreat from Armenia and return to the mountains west of Pontus for rest and recuperation.

Pompey arrived at his camp with a fresh army.

Lucullus, who had learned the news from other channels, went out to greet Pompey with his attendants as usual, but with a cold face, he confronted Pompey outside the camp gate. It was his attendants who took the initiative to step forward and handed over a laurel wreath made of laurel branches, while Pompey's attendants returned the favor with sticks wrapped with laurel branches, thus completing the handover of commander through such a ceremony.

However, the young Pompey was accustomed to the cheers of the people, and was suddenly treated so coldly. Even though the other party was a senior in the same faction, he could hardly suppress his anger. He immediately mocked Lucullus for being incompetent and wasting so many years without being able to kill Mithridates.

Lucullus retorted that his successor was like a scavenger bird, driven mad by the blood of enemies killed by stronger men than Pompey.

The situation became increasingly heated and soon turned into a verbal abuse match, and the attendants on both sides had to pull the two generals apart.

But Pompey was the commander, and he soon ruthlessly deprived Lucullus of his command of his legion and led all the troops towards the capital of Pontus.

Without any official position, Lucullus was abandoned in the camp, and eventually he had to embark on a long journey back to Rome with the huge wealth he had plundered from these Eastern kingdoms.

In the past two years, in addition to the glorious Pompey, the newly-crowned Roman senator Caesar has also attracted attention. His gorgeous attire and constantly updated gossip have become the topic of conversation among the people.

In the political arena, he was also flamboyant and bold, which was in stark contrast to most of the senators who were known for their conservatism at the time. The senators, led by Catullus, were quite dissatisfied with this ostentatious young man.

But Caesar repeatedly advocated for Pompey and won Pompey's friendship. Pompey gave him the support and helped Caesar become the manager of the Appian Way in 66 BC.

The Appian Way was the first road built by the Romans to run through southern Italy. It is also one of the most important roads leading to Rome. There are so many businessmen and pedestrians passing through it every day that it needs to be maintained all the time. However, the Roman treasury has always provided only a small amount of funds, which is far from enough to maintain such a long road. In the past, managers either raised funds from merchant groups or just repaired the important defects of the road to make the road passable normally and barely maintain it until the end of their term.

But Caesar was different from previous administrators. After taking office, he publicly announced that the funds needed to renovate and improve the entire Appian Way and its ancillary buildings would not need to be raised by the people, but would be spent on his own private property.

Using personal money to run an office was not Caesar's idea. Many Roman senators also did this when they held office, mainly to win people's hearts and gain voters' support. However, most of them did so after serving as alcaldes, jurists, and consuls. Caesar made such a big move when he was just the manager of the Appian Via, which really attracted great attention from the Roman people.

Caesar was not just talking, he quickly organized a construction team and began to rebuild the Appian Way.

It would cost a lot of money to improve the Appian Way and its ancillary buildings.

Caesar's father died early, and Caesar himself fled overseas for many years when he was young. Although he has become a senator now, his family has not accumulated much wealth.

However, Caesar was not worried about the lack of money at all. His approach was to borrow money from the rich, and his main target was Crassus.

Crassus's father earned a considerable fortune for the family during his tenure as Governor of Spain. Later, Crassus's brother died in battle and the family property went to Crassus, but Crassus did not sit back and enjoy the fruits of his labor. He inherited his father's business talent, and using his status as a senator, he got involved in a variety of businesses and maintained close ties with tax farmers and other usurious financial groups in other provinces.

What he is best known for is that he used various means to almost monopolize the real estate business in the entire city of Rome, which made him the richest man in Rome, but also made him hated by some people.

However, although Crassus was extremely rich and lived in an era of luxury and indulgence, his lifestyle was very simple. He did not make money for the sake of making money, but to satisfy his political ambitions. He was always very generous in lending money to many politicians and rarely charged interest. However, when the agreed repayment date arrived, he would send someone to collect the debt.

Most of the senators in the Senate either owed money to Crassus or had benefited from his interest-free loans. Very few of them were members of the Roman noble families, who were usually wealthy enough not to need to borrow. Some of them, like Caesar, came from the fringes of the upper circle but had great ambitions; others were lower-ranking senators who had never served as magistrates and rarely had the opportunity to speak in the Senate, but they had the right to vote.

Crassus generously allowed these people to use their wealth so that he could gain political rewards from them.

Caesar was one of the many senators who borrowed money from Crassus. He didn't look special, but in Crassus's eyes he was indeed the most special one.

Caesar and Crassus were more than ten years apart. During the Roman Civil War between Marius and Sulla, young Crassus experienced a period of displacement because he was a member of Sulla's faction, and Caesar was still a teenager at that time. When Sulla won the final victory, Caesar was forced to go into exile for many years because he refused to divorce Cinna's daughter. The two had almost no intersection.

Later, Caesar finally returned to Rome and replaced his deceased uncle and became a priest. At this time, Crassus was already an important figure among the Roman senators. In the subsequent Spartacus uprising, he also served as a commander, leading a large army and finally wiped out the slave uprising.

During the entire war, Caesar, as a young man of military age and the winner of the warrior's crown, naturally joined the army. However, he was one of the captains of the two newly formed reserve legions, responsible for garrisoning the city of Rome, and had little interaction with Crassus.

But in the following years, Caesar's name attracted more and more attention from Crassus. Of course, this was not just because Caesar cheated on him.

Tertula was Crassus's wife and also the wife of Crassus's brother. His brother died in the civil war. Perhaps in order to inherit the family property more smoothly, or perhaps because of Tertula's family background, Crassus married this widowed sister-in-law and had several children.

After Caesar returned to Rome, although he married a new wife, he never stopped looking for beauties and seducing Roman ladies of high rank.

There are several reasons why he did this: first, he was indeed too active in that aspect, beyond ordinary people; second, to suppress the rumors that he succumbed to Nicomedes IV and became a pedophile. In fact, he did succeed. In recent years, the Roman people no longer talked about his affairs in the East, and all kinds of his scandals were spread everywhere in the streets and alleys; third, he had a strong desire to win. Caesar felt that sleeping with the wives of other senators proved that he was better than them not only in the Senate, but also in the bedroom.

In most cases, there were very few single noble women in Rome for Caesar to pursue, because their fathers would marry them off when they were very young in order to establish and strengthen political ties, and young or middle-aged women who were divorced or widowed would often be remarried quickly.

(End of this chapter)