Catiline and the "Concordia Ordinum" - Historia Antigua

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CATILINE AND THE CONCORDIA ORDINUM 17 common end? And further, was there no real content to the terms populares and optimates? It has been mentioned above that, according to Miinzer, cliques formed among the nobiles from time to time, and that often one clique, whose members were usually related by marriage or birth, would dominate the others for a considerable period. Factio is the Latin term for such a clique and among the Romans it had a derogatory connotation.8 Syme calls it a "gang," but a very convenient term might be borrowed from Canadian history and applied with more accuracy to the Roman scene than to the Canadian-"the Family Compact."' Sulla, in his reconstruction of Roman life, placed such a group in control, basing it on the Caecilii Metelli.o0 This Family Compact was mainly concerned with getting its relations and friends elected to the consulship. That office gave great power at the time, a dominant place in the senate afterwards, and, in addition, the governorship of a province, by which the ex-consul could recoup his own fortunes and hand out patronage to his friends and relatives." The office of pontifex maximus, however, and the position of princeps senatus were also coveted for the prestige and important political influence connected with them. The Family Compact was naturally reactionary because it could keep its supremacy only by maintaining the status quo. In consequence it opposed all change; it vigorously and with much success contested every consular election; it fought the granting of extraordinary power to anyone; and it was content to exploit the Roman Empire as it was. But, although kinship, friendship, and other ties gave it cohesion, underlying these was self- interest. The dominant members, moreover, were of one social and economic class-land-owning aristocracy-that regarded rule and the rewards of rule as its birthright. Those of inferior status who were linked with the dominant members by ties of obligation also had their own interest at heart in defending the interest of their patrons. That is to say, the membership consisted of interest groups, one of which 8Cicero applies the term factio to a group of people, called optimates, who control the commonwealth by reason of wealth, birth, or some kind of power (De Re Publica, in. 13, 23; cf. I. 45, 69). Both Julius Caesar and Augustus used the term to describe their enemies (De Bello Civili, I. 22, 5 and Monumentum Ancyranum, I. 2). 9This term was applied to the local oligarchy that joined the lieutenant-governor in ruling Upper Canada in the period 1800-41. Though not actually linked by ties of blood or marriage, it formed a close-knit clique that managed political and economic life to its own best advantage. See W. S. Wallace, The Family Compact (Toronto and Glasgow, 1920), 1-7. s0Syme, The Roman Revolution, 20-2 and genealogical tables at end. Q. Metellus Pius was consul in 80 B.c. and pontifex maximus down to 63 B.c. The other consul in 80 B.c., the dictator Sulla, was married to a Metella, as were the consuls of 79 B.c., P. Servilius Vatia Isauricus and Appius Claudius Pulcher. Catulus, consul in 78 B.c., Hortensius, consul in 69 B.c., the Licinii Luculli and Cato likewise, were connected by kinship with each other and with the Metelli. In 69 B.c. one Metellus was consul, one praetor, and one governor in Sicily. That the Metelli, like the Republican party of the United States, had the elephant for their heraldic badge is pure.coincidence. "For a complete account of the possibilities for graft see R. O. Jolliffe, Phases of Corruption in Roman Administration in the Last Half-Century of the Roman Republic (Menasha, 1919).
18 THE PHOENIX united and led the others. This Roman Family Compact had, therefore, much in common with the modern political party, and the term optimates may be used to designate it if the considerations adduced above are kept in mind. By no means all the nobiles and certainly not all those eligible for office were connected with the Family Compact. To an "outsider" two courses of action were open: he might court the favour of the dominant clique, or he could try to build up a clique of his own to supplant the one in power. The latter course was followed by Pompey, Crassus, and Caesar, although not with complete consistency by Pompey. The careers of Pompey, Crassus, and Caesar demonstrate a very well-defined trend. In 70 B.C. Pompey and Crassus revived the censorship, one function of which was to let state contracts, so lucrative for the financial section of the equestrian class, the tax-farmers (publicani).12 They also revised the composition of the juries in the courts dealing with provincial extortion and other crimes-again a favour to the equestrian class. Then, in 67 B.c., Pompey was given an extraordinary command to clear the seas of pirates, the main beneficiary being the equestrian class with its Eastern interests. And in 66 B.C. Pompey took over the Eastern War from Lucullus, a member of the Family Compact who had affronted the publicani.'3 In his Eastern campaigns Pompey showed himself the first outstanding Roman imperialist, organizing the new areas in the way best suited for exploitation by the publicani.14 While Pompey was winning prestige and popularity by his military prowess, Crassus was making friends in politics, in the law courts, and by judicious use of his money.'5 He had the means and the inclination to help those who were the victims of political, judicial, or financial misfortune.'6 His friends could borrow money without interest, although they had to be prompt in repayment." He championed the Transpadani in their plea for Roman citizenship."8 For a time (66 B.C.- 63 B.C.) he seems to have tried to supplant Pompey in the affections of the publicani, but he was later persuaded by circumstances and by Caesar to abandon this dangerous course of action and to work with Pompey in their common interest.19 Caesar himself played a canny 12A. H. J. Greenidge, Roman Public Life (London, 1901), 229 ff. 13Cambridge Ancient History, vol. 9 (Cambridge, 1932), 340 f.; 346; 348 f. 14Tenney Frank, Roman Imperialism (New York, 1929), 323 f. The whole chapter (313 ff.) is worth attention for the picture it gives of the activities of Pompey and the business interests. 15Plutarch, Crassus, 7. 16Such people were called calamitosi or naufragi. Examples are Autronius and P. Sulla (Cicero. Pro Sulla, 1. 1; 13. 36 and 38; 32. 91); the children of the proscribed (Velleius Paterculus, II. 28); C. Curtius (Cicero, Ad Familiares, xiix. 5. 2); see also Pro Sex. Roscio, 50. 147; fragment vi of In Clodium et Curionem in Scholia Bobiensia, edited by Hildebrandt (Leipzig, 1907), 22; Pro Sulla, 14. 41; Philippic xii. 8. 19. 17Plutarch, Crassus, 3. 18Cambridge Ancient History, vol. 9, 481. "9Hardy, The Catilinarian Conspiracy, discusses the attempts made by Crassus to outdo Pompey in power and prestige, but believes this ended before the tribunician elections in 63 B.C. (see notes 50 and 57).
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Catiline and the "Concordia Ordinum" - Historia Antigua

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