The Catili narian outbreak had been a blow to Caesar, whose schemes it inter rupted, but to Cicero it brought not only popularity and honour, but, as he believed, the realization of his political ideal. But Pompey was now on his way home', and again as in 7o the political future seemed to depend on the attitude which the successful gen eral would assume; Pompey himself looked simply to the attain ment by the help of one political party or another of his immediate aims, which at present were the ratification of his arrangements in Asia and a grant of land for his troops. It was the impracticable jealousy of his personal rivals in the senate, aided by the versa tility of Caesaar who presented himself not as his rival but as his ally, which drove Pompey once more, in spite of Cicero's efforts, into the camp of what was still nominally the popular party. In 6o, on Caesar's return from his propraetorship in Spain, the coali tion was formed which is known by the somewhat misleading title of the First Triumvirate. Pompey was ostensibly the head of this new alliance, and in return for the satisfaction of his own demands he undertook to support Caesar's candidature for the consulship. The wealth and influence of Crassus were enlisted in the same cause, and the publicani were secured by a promise of release from their bargain for collecting the taxes of Asia. Cicero was under no illusions as to the significance of this coalition. It scattered to the winds his dreams of a stable and conservative republic. The year 59 saw the republic powerless in the hands of three citizens. Caesar as consul procured the ratification of Pompey's acts in Asia, granted to the publicani the relief refused by the senate, and car ried an agrarian law of the new type, which provided for the pur chase of lands for allotment at the cost of the treasury and for the assignment of the rich ager Campania. But Caesar aimed at more than the carrying of laws in the teeth of the senate or any party victory in the forum. An important military command was essen tial to him. An obedient tribune, P. Vatinius, was found, and by the lex Vatinia he was given for five years the command of Cisal pine Gaul and Illyricum, to which was added by a decree of the senate Transalpine Gaul also. This command not only opened to him a great military career, but enabled him, as the master of the valley of the Po, tq keep an effective watch on the course of affairs in Italy.
'For the history of the next 18 years, the most important ancient authority is Cicero in his letters and speeches.
Early the next year the attack upon himself which Cicero had foreseen was made. P. Clodius (q.v.) as tribune brought forward a law enacting that anyone who had put a Roman citizen to death without trial by the people should be interdicted from fire and water. Cicero, finding himself deserted even by Pompey, left Rome in a panic, and by a second Clodian law he was declared to be outlawed. With Caesar away in his province and Cicero ban ished, Clodius was for the time master in Rome. But, absolute as he was in the streets, and recklessly as he parodied the policy of the Gracchi by violent attacks on the senate, his tribunate merely illustrated the anarchy which now inevitably followed the with drawal of a strong controlling hand. A reaction speedily followed. Pompey, bewildered and alarmed by Clodius's violence, at last bestirred himself. Cicero's recall was decreed by the senate, and early in Aug. 57 in the comitia centuriata, to which his Italian supporters flocked in crowds, a law was passed revoking the sentence of outlawry passed upon him.
Coalition.—Intoxicated by the acclamations which greeted him, and encouraged by Pompey's support, and by the salutary effects of Clodius's excesses, Cicero's hopes rose high. With indefatigable energy he strove to reconstruct a solid consti tutional party, but only to fail once more. Pompey was irritated by the hostility of a powerful section in the senate, who thwarted his desires for a fresh command and even encouraged Clodius in insulting the conqueror of the East. Caesar became alarmed at the reports which reached him that the repeal of his agrarian law was threatened and that the feeling against the coalition was growing in strength; above all, he was anxious for a renewal of his five years' command. He acted at once, and in the celebrated confer ence at Luca (56) the alliance of the three self-constituted rulers of Rome was renewed. Cicero succumbed to the inevitable and withdrew in despair from public life. Pompey and Crassus became consuls for 55. Caesar's command was renewed for another five years, and to each of his two allies important provinces were assigned for a similar period—Pompey receiving the two Spains and Africa, and Crassus Syria. The coalition now divided between them the control of the empire. For the future the question was, how long the coalition itself would last. Its duration proved to be short. In 53 Crassus was defeated and slain by the Parthians at Carrhae, and in Rome the course of events slowly forced Pompey into an attitude of hostility to Caesar. The year 54 brought with it a renewal of the riotous anarchy which had disgraced Rome in 58-57. Conscious of its own helplessness, the senate, with the eager assent of all respectable citizens, dissuaded Pompey from leaving Italy; and he accordingly left his provinces to be governed by his legates. But the anarchy and confusion only grew worse, and even strict constitutionalists like Cicero talked of the necessity of investing Pompey with some extraordinary powers for the preservation of order'. At last in 52 he was elected sole consul, and not only so, but his provincial command was prolonged for five years more, and fresh troops were assigned him. The role of "saviour of society" thus thrust upon Pompey was one which flat tered his vanity, but it entailed consequences which it is probable he did not foresee, for it brought him into close alliance with the senate. In the senate there was a powerful party which was resolved to force him into heading the attack upon Caesar that otherwise they could not successfully make. It was known that Caesar, whose command expired in March 49, but who in the ordi nary course of things would not have been replaced by his suc cessor until Jan. 48, was anxious to be allowed to stand for his second consulship in the autumn of 49 without coming in person to Rome. His opponents in the senate were equally bent on bringing his command to an end at the legal time, and so obliging him to disband his troops and stand for the consulship as a private person, or, if he kept his command, on preventing his standing for the consulship. Through 51 and 5o the discussions in the senate and the negotiations with Caesar continued, but with no result. On Jan. I, 49, Caesar made a last offer of compromise. The senate 'Cicero himself anticipated Augustus in his picture of a princeps civitatis sketched in a lost book of the De republica, written about this time, which was
upon his hopes of what Pompey might prove to be ; Ad Ate- viii. i i ; August De civ. Dei, v. 53.