Rome must fall.

Chapter 396 Catiline
Seeing Cato, the older generation of Roman nobles, who were suffering from their own corruption, were greatly encouraged and believed that he was the hope of the Republic. After his term as quaestor ended, they welcomed him into the Senate with drums and gongs.

Caesar was neat and stylish, leading the fashion trends; Cato was careless and sloppy; Caesar was fond of luxurious competitions and performances, spending money lavishly; Cato was very frugal and extremely strict with himself... Both of them established a distinctive image and won wide recognition and reputation from the Roman people.

……

Less than a year after the Nyx and the Pannoni signed a peace agreement, envoys sent by the three major Pannoni tribes once again sought an audience with Maximus and put forward a new request: they hoped to form an alliance with the Nyx to fight against the Boii together.

Their reason was: the Boyi were powerful, fierce and greedy. Once the Pannoni tribe was defeated by them, they would not stop their invasion. At that time, tens of thousands of Boyi warriors would pour into the Nix territory. The lips and teeth are cold, so the Nix tribe and the Pannoni tribe must unite to ensure the safety of their own territories!
Despite the envoy's eloquence, Maximus firmly rejected the Pannonians' request.

……

In 63 BC (the tenth year after the establishment of the Nix tribe), Cicero and Hybrida officially became consuls.

Immediately thereafter, a tribune named Lulus proposed a radical land bill, calling for the large-scale distribution of land to poor citizens, starting with the state-owned land in Campania.

This bill could not solve the problem of a large number of landless refugees in Rome, but it could alleviate the problem, so all ten tribunes supported the bill, and Crassus and Caesar were also active supporters of Lulus.

Pompey's attitude is more difficult to judge.

On the one hand, his military campaign was about to end, and a large number of veterans needed resettlement after returning home. This land bill might be able to provide them with farmland.

On the other hand, if Crassus played a key role in this plan, it would mean that these veterans and many other citizens would owe Crassus a favor, which would also mean that Pompey owed Crassus a favor, so Pompey did not make a clear statement.

However, many important senators opposed Lulus' proposal. Although Cicero became consul, his political foundation was still relatively weak. He felt that this was a good opportunity to win them over. So he delivered a series of speeches to the Senate and the people, and finally won the victory. The land bill was abandoned.

Disappointed Caesar then sued Piso, who had just stepped down as governor of the northern Italian province, but Piso's defense lawyer was Cicero. Caesar still failed this time, but his efforts for the interests of the people of Inner Gaul enhanced his prestige among the people of northern Italy.

Next, Caesar worked closely with Labienus, one of the tribunes, to prosecute an old and mediocre senator, Labirius, because he had killed the tribune Saturninus thirty-seven years ago. According to Roman law, "the tribunes are sacred and inviolable", so the charge was high treason.

Caesar and his distant cousin (also named Caesar) were chosen by lot as the two judges to try the case.

Labirius was found guilty and the penalty was death.

He was allowed to appeal to the Centuriate Assembly, which represented the Roman people. Cicero and Hortensi both defended him, but it seemed that they were unable to reverse the verdict. Just as Labirius was about to be found guilty, something happened that brought the trial to an abrupt halt.

According to tradition, the Centuriate Assembly met in the Forum of Mars, and sentinels would be posted on the commanding heights of the nearby Janiculum Hill. The sentinels would hang a red flag on the top of the mountain, and the Centuriate Assembly could continue to meet and handle affairs. If the flag was lowered, it meant that Rome was in danger, and the citizens had to immediately disband the assembly, take up arms and prepare for battle. This custom has continued to this era.

Just before the vote of the Centuriate Council to decide the fate of Labirius ended, Metellus, the judicial officer presiding over the meeting, quietly sent someone to lower the flag on the top of the mountain, and the meeting was dissolved before a verdict was made.

Both Caesar and Labienus were very willing to give up pursuing the case afterwards. It is obvious that Caesar did not really want to convict and execute an elderly elder. His main purpose was to show up at such an important gathering and stand on the side of public opinion.

So later in the year, another meeting of the Council of 100 elected him as Chancellor for the following year.

In Rome, the praetor was an important position second only to the consul. After the term ended, if the person concerned was willing, he would definitely get the position of a provincial governor, so the competition for the praetor was very fierce. However, Caesar was successfully elected just after reaching the minimum age for the praetor, which was enough to prove how popular he was in the hearts of the Roman people.

It happened that in this year, the high priest of Rome died and the position became vacant.

When Sulla was in power, he gave the power to appoint and dismiss the high priest to the Senate. However, this year Labienus, who had a close relationship with Caesar, proposed a bill, which was passed, to restore the old practice - that the position of high priest was elected by citizens.

Caesar was not content with being just a cleric; he wanted to run for high priest and publicly announced his candidacy at a rally.

The high priest had a high prestige and was considered the most important person in Rome in many ways. Therefore, many celebrities and dignitaries would actively compete for this position. Catullus also participated in the election, and Caesar's old boss in Cilicia, Isauricus, also participated.

Compared with these senior senators, Caesar was still a young man and no one was optimistic about him.

But during the campaign, Caesar, like other candidates, spent a lot of money, gave gifts, helped others, and won over key figures in each tribe. Catullus felt the pressure and offered to give Caesar a large sum of money if he withdrew from the election.

Yes, Caesar is now heavily in debt. If he fails, he may be forced to jump off the building by his creditors.

Caesar, who was heavily in debt, was not panicked at all. Instead, he borrowed more money and won over more tribes. Of course, his main creditor was still Crassus.

For Caesar, this was a gamble that could only succeed, not fail.

On the day of election, Caesar kissed his mother goodbye and told her solemnly: he would either come back as the high priest or never come back!

Finally, he succeeded!

Considering how powerful his opponent was, this victory was quite remarkable and made him a rising star in Roman politics!

Although the high priest had no power to give orders to other priests, as a majority vote of the priestly body could overrule the high priest's opinion, the high priest would play a central role in many aspects of Roman religion and sacrifice, which would make Caesar's prestige and reputation very high among the Roman people.

In addition, as high priest, he also obtained a mansion at the east end of the Roman Forum, which was just a stone's throw away from the Senate, which further helped him to exert his influence in politics.

Although the result of the high priest election was unexpected, the Roman people were more concerned about the consul election at the end of the year, and Catiline was working hard on his final attempt.

He knew that he had little chance of winning this time, so he decided to take a different approach and try to portray himself as a defender of the poor, publicly declaring that there were two republics in Rome. One was the masses, powerful but leaderless, and the other was his opponents, who had only heads but no bodies because they did not have the real support of the people. He himself wanted to become the leader that the masses desperately needed.

As a result, many poor people came to him, including many Sulla's veterans who had lost their homes and lands. They marched in Rome many times to express their support for Catiline.

Catiline made a lot of noise in Rome, even attracting some young Roman nobles and making them go against their own families. This also made most of the senators in the Senate no longer friendly to him.

On the day of the election, in order to prevent riots, Cicero, who was supervising the election, even put on armor and led the guards to maintain order during the campaign.

Ultimately, Catiline failed.

One of the two consuls elected was named Silanus, whose career was mediocre and not as well known to the people as his wife.

Silanus' wife Servilia was Caesar's most important lover. Their intimate relationship lasted for a long time, which was rare for Caesar who loved pleasure. It was not because Servilia was extremely beautiful, but because Servilia was beautiful, intelligent, well-read and ambitious... She was spiritually compatible with Caesar and became his good partner in his political career.

Catiline had lost the election and his debts were soon due, but he seemed to remain calm and continued to attend Senate meetings.

But his men were busy recruiting troops in northern Italy.

Cicero kept a close eye on Catiline and received a secret report that Catiline was planning a rebellion.

But without any conclusive evidence and without any unusual behavior on the part of Catiline, Cicero's warning failed to prompt the Senate to take any effective action.

Until a stack of letters was suddenly delivered to Cicero's home, describing that "Catiline planned to launch a rebellion and massacre Roman celebrities and dignitaries." The person who handed over these accusatory documents was none other than Crassus, who once supported Catiline.

After Cicero read the letter in the Senate the next day, Rome entered a state of emergency and Consul Cicero was given full authority to deal with the crisis.

Cicero mobilized the army to suppress possible riots. At the same time, he convened a meeting of the Senate and publicly reprimanded Catiline.

That night, Catiline fled Rome, claiming that he had chosen voluntary exile in order to avoid internal strife in the Republic.

(End of this chapter)