This alliance had no basis in Roman law or practice and was never legally invested with official functions or jurisdiction, but with Pompey as the recognized military leader, Crassus the financier, and Caesar the pontifex maximus for life, their combined prestige, vast clientships and resources formed a formidable political partnership. Caesar as the leading spirit of the directorate was the main beneficiary from the beginning. The alliance was later fortified by the marriage of Caesar’s daughter Julia (3) (c.76-54 BC) to Pompey.
The success of the alliance was evident in the election of Caesar as consul in 59 BC. During the election both Crassus (supporting the populare candidate Caesar) and Cato (supporting the optimate candidate Bibulus) blatantly resorted to bribery to support their man. That buying votes was now the norm shows how corrupt the process had become.
As consul, Caesar began to honour promises that he must have given to Pompey and Crassus. He introduced an agrarian bill to meet the needs of Pompey’s veterans, which included stipulations and safeguards that should have satisfied everyone. Many of the senators, however, could not abide the idea of the state buying and distributing land to the veterans and the poor. Cato obstructed discussion of the bill by a filibuster (he was one of its earliest practitioners) that lasted until nightfall at which point – the Senate requiring all business to be concluded by dusk – a vote was impossible
Caesar took his bill to the ‘popular assembly’ (probably the comitia curiata). Pompey and Crassus were united in its support, but Caesar’s co-consul Bibulus said the law would never be passed during his consulship, announcing that on every night preceding the assembly he would watch the sky for ill-omens (spectio), the report of which was sufficient to cancel any assembly. Caesar set a date for a vote on his bill and packed the Forum with Pompey’s veterans. When Bibulus attempted to announce the omens, a riot ensued. He and his followers were ejected, after which the bill passed into law with Caesar making the senators take an oath to support it in the hope of preventing them repealing it at a later date.
A second agrarian bill, the lex Campania, allowed for the distribution of ager Campanus, the rich lands behind the Bay of Naples, to be awarded to some veterans and fathers of large families. This was a serious blow to the peasant farmers and deprived the treasury of its revenues from these lands. Cicero had declined Caesar’s invitation to join the alliance, which he considered unconstitutional, but now he was becoming increasingly isolated from his optimate friends, who continued to ignore the popular issues.
Caesar through his ally the tribune Publius Vatinius passed three important pieces of legislation: the ratification of Pompey’s settlement in the East; the remittance of one third of the cost of the Asian contracts to the publicani; and the lex Vatinia de provincia Caesaris securing for Caesar the proconsular command of Gallia Cisalpina and Illyricum for a period of five years with three legions and the right to appoint his own legates. When the governor-elect of Gallia Narbonensis suddenly died, on Pompey’s proposal the Senate added this province and an extra legion to Caesar’s command. Caesar himself carried the lex Julia de percuniis repetundis establishing guidelines for provincial governors, and helped pass a law that mandated the public release of all Senate debates and proceedings. Late in the year, he married Calpurnia, the daughter of 13Calpurnius Piso (cos.58 BC).
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