Rome must fall.

Chapter 410: New Agreement of the Triumvirate
Claudius was originally a top aristocrat in Rome. When he ignored traditional rules, acted as the leader of hooligans, and used violence to disrupt the political arena, the senators were helpless against him.

Only Pompey, who had a grudge against Claudius, supported the new tribune and formed his own gang of thugs to fight against Claudius's men with violence.

From time to time, large-scale fights broke out between the two teams in Rome, causing considerable casualties. The order of the entire city of Rome was destroyed, and even the safety of the senators and nobles was threatened.

So the Senate passed a bill to recall Cicero back to Rome, and Pompey was quite active in this process.

In return, Cicero proposed to the Senate: grant Pompey special command power to better solve Italy's grain import problem.

Many conservative elders expressed their support.

So Pompey, who had been idle for several years, once again took power.

But soon after, Claudius was also elected as a municipal official. He quickly prosecuted the former tribune Milo (who formed a mob with Pompey's support to fight against Claudius's men) for "political violence". Pompey and Cicero defended him. The two sides had a fierce confrontation at the assembly and even threatened each other.

The deepening hatred between Pompey and Claudius also increasingly affected the relationship between him and Crassus, because although Crassus had been low-profile in the political arena in recent years, in fact many people knew that he was secretly supporting Claudius.

Therefore, Pompey believed that Crassus was deliberately targeting him. In addition, the conservative senators led by Cicero began to show goodwill towards him, which made him begin to consider whether it was worthwhile to continue to maintain the Triumvirate.

Cicero and his colleagues were keenly aware of this change, so they asked someone to propose in the Senate: Since Caesar had successfully conquered Gaul, there was no need for him to stay in Gaul for the full five years, and he could be recalled early.

Another senator, Domitius, who had a good chance of becoming consul next year (his ancestors once conquered Transalpine Gaul on elephants, and his family had many connections with Gaul), publicly stated that he hoped to replace Caesar and become the governor of Gaul after leaving office.

Pompey did not completely oppose the proposal, while Crassus remained silent.

The triumvirate is on the verge of collapse.

Caesar in the north had been paying close attention to the political situation in Rome. After discovering this situation, he immediately took action and invited Pompey and Crassus to meet in Lucca, a city in his province. Through his outstanding mediation and planning abilities, he enabled the three to reach a new agreement.

In this new agreement: Pompey and Crassus once again joined forces to run for the consulship of the next year (i.e. 55 BC) to prevent Caesar's mortal enemy Domitius from being elected. After the two consuls left office, Pompey served as the governor of Spain for five years, Crassus served as the governor of Syria for five years, and Caesar continued to serve as the governor of Gaul for another five years on the basis of the previous one.

It can be said that this agreement satisfied all three of them, especially Crassus.

When Pompey conquered the East, he gained huge amounts of wealth that exceeded that of Crassus. Later, Caesar's military achievements in Gaul also overshadowed him, making him the least prominent member of the three-man alliance, and it was inevitable that he felt unbalanced.

The current agreement allowed him to have an army and formal governing power in the next few years. He ambitiously set his sights on Parthia east of Syria. If he could conquer this ancient Eastern empire, his achievements would surpass Caesar's, and he would also earn huge wealth from this wealthy land.

The Triumvirate was consolidated again.

When the news spread, the Senate was shocked, but Cicero quickly accepted this reality. Perhaps he had learned a lesson from his previous exile, which led him to choose to compromise in the face of the powerful forces of the Three Giants.

So he gave a speech in the Senate, opposing the proposal of Caesar's political enemies (to remove Caesar from his post as governor of Gaul), while also praising Caesar's victory in Gaul.

With his joint support, Pompey and Crassus, Caesar's command in Gaul was confirmed, and the treasury would pay for additional legions recruited by Caesar himself.

However, when it came to the issue of electing consuls for the next year, the conservatives were unwilling to compromise, and even Pompey and Crassus had a hard time qualifying to run.

Before the election day, Caesar specially sent a large number of his soldiers back to Rome to vote, including Crassus's son Publius.

As a result, fierce violence broke out on election day, one of the candidates, Amityus, was injured and one of his servants was killed, and Pompey and Crassus became the winners.

Later, the forces of the Triumvirate intimidated Cato the Younger, preventing him from being elected as a judge.

There was a very fierce fight during the election of the aldermen, and Pompey was splashed with other people's blood. When he returned home, his pregnant wife Junia was frightened by the blood on his body and had a miscarriage.

………………………………………………………………………………In the first half of this year, most of the tribes in Gaul surrendered to Caesar and handed over hostages to him, and peace seemed to have been restored in the entire Gaul region.

Caesar had begun to turn his attention eastward, considering the possibility of marching into Nyx and Dacia, but subsequent changes in Roman politics forced him to urgently invite Pompey and Crassus to Lucca for negotiations.

After the new agreement was reached, trouble broke out again in Gaul.

The coastal tribes, such as the Veneti, detained the Roman officers who were sent to these tribes to prepare military supplies, and demanded the return of their hostages, otherwise they would not release the officers.

Of course Caesar would not agree, and the war broke out again.

After Caesar finally defeated the Veneti, he severely punished them. Not only did he massacre the entire Veneti council, he also sold the captured and surrendered tribesmen as slaves - he wanted to use such brutal means to warn other Gallic tribes not to betray.

During the war, Caesar discovered that the Gallic coastal tribes that were hostile to him had received military assistance from the British tribes, so he decided to cross the sea for an expedition to Britain.

Crossing the sea to attack a completely unfamiliar area was undoubtedly difficult. The first attack did not achieve great results, but Caesar gained more intelligence about Britain.

Soon he planned a second expedition, this time with better preparations.

However, when he was winning more glory and earning more wealth in Britain, Caesar's only child, Pompey's wife Junia, died of childbirth in August 50 BC, and his mother Aurelia also died in the same year.

Within a year, Caesar lost two of his closest family members.

Although he was sad, there was an urgent issue that he needed to resolve as soon as possible - the death of Julia had destroyed the closest bond between Pompey and Caesar.

He then proposed that Pompey marry his great-niece Octavia, while he would marry Pompey's daughter Pompeia, which would require Caesar, Octavia, and Pompeia to divorce their current spouses.

Pompey rejected the proposal and did not show any intention of remarrying for a while, probably out of mourning for his late wife Julia. Although their initial marriage was for political reasons, the old man and his young wife have always been very loving, and people often criticized him for always staying with his wife in the manor to enjoy himself instead of dealing with the affairs of the Republic. He never cheated during this marriage.

In fact, after Pompey stepped down as consul that year, he should have gone to Spain to take over the position of governor, but the 51-year-old Pompey did not intend to return to the battlefield. Instead, he stayed in his estate outside Rome to take care of his pregnant wife Julia, and appointed legion commanders to govern the Spanish province and command the Roman army there.

Pompey's practice was against the rules, as no Roman governor had ever done this before. However, Pompey always liked to break Roman traditions, so the Senate did not blame him for this.

Crassus, who was almost sixty years old, was very eager to take office as the governor of Syria. During his tenure as consul, his plan to conquer Parthia became known, and some senators publicly protested, believing that he would involve Rome in a meaningless and unjust war.

As soon as his term as consul ended, Crassus hurried to the East with a large entourage.

When he was young, he fought bravely for Sulla, but felt that he did not get the recognition he deserved; when Spartacus launched a rebellion, he turned the tide, but after the war, the people forgot the danger at that time and merely regarded the war as an action to suppress slaves; so this time he wanted to fully demonstrate his military talents in the process of conquering Parthia and let the Roman people cheer for his great achievements.

From this year on, all members of the Triumvirate were not in Rome (as the governor of the province, Pompey was not allowed to enter Rome according to regulations, so he could only stay in the suburbs outside Rome), and the new consuls were Caesar's mortal enemy Domitius and Appius, the brother of the uncontrollable Claudius, and Cato also became a legal officer.

However, the agents of the Triumvirate were very active in Rome, allowing them to still control Roman politics, and it was difficult for the conservative senators to take any action that was detrimental to the Triumvirate.

In order to get the position of tribune for one of his followers, Appius even had to travel north to Ravenna to visit Caesar to obtain permission.

Although Caesar had always been paying attention to Roman politics, most of his energy during this year was devoted to continuous fighting and he had little free time.

After returning from the British campaign, he did not even go home to hold a funeral, but hurriedly convened a meeting of the leaders of the Gaul tribes.

The reason was that the agricultural harvest in Gaul was very poor this year. The tribal leaders of the Gallic region explained that this summer was particularly dry, but in fact, Caesar's wars in Gaul in recent years had greatly disrupted the farming of the Gallic tribes. Moreover, during his expedition to Britain, he also recruited labor from the Gauls and collected food and fodder to meet the logistical supplies of the army, which undoubtedly increased the burden on the Gallic tribes.

(End of this chapter)