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♪
Narrator: The Roman Republic is mourning the death
of its most senior priest-- the pontifex maximus.
It's a religious position of enormous prestige
that also brings political authority and influence.
Now the people of Rome
must vote for their next pontifex.
Candidates are expected to be
senior politicians with established careers.
Two elder statesmen have put themselves forward.
But so, too, has a politician half their age.
Julius Caesar.
Man: This is an outrageous move.
It is a blatant flouting of convention,
it is arrogant, it is improper.
But the thing is that Caesar doesn't really care for convention.
Caesar is a gambler.
Throughout his life,
he is always rolling the dice.
And I think it's actually pretty clear
what Caesar wants right from the beginning.
He wants to be the greatest man in Rome.
♪
Narrator: At the heart of the most powerful empire
in the ancient world stands Rome.
For 500 years, it was ruled by elected government.
But in a little over a decade,
this republic was overthrown by the ambitions of one man.
Man: The story of Caesar is an incredibly enduring one,
the resonance of it so powerful.
It remains the most thrilling, the most extraordinary
political story in Western history.
Narrator: Now historians and experts who understand
the nature of political power will chart his rise...
Woman: Rome is ungovernable, and there's only one man
in the city with the power
to take control of the situation.
Narrator: and ask how an individual can bend
a centuries-old political system to breaking point.
Julius Caesar is the most dangerous kind of demagogue.
Narrator: This is the story of how ambition turns to tyranny...
Man: He's a disgrace in every single way.
He's immoral, he's irreligious,
and he's a potential tyrant.
Narrator: and how a dictator is born.
Man: The awful lesson is that in the end,
a populist can corrupt an entire state.
Man 2: For every other political system,
that values stability and justice and liberty,
that should be, at the very least, a wake-up call.
Woman: Democracy has to be constantly fought for.
If we take it for granted, a new Caesar will come.
♪
[Birds squawking]ng]
♪
Narrator: The election of the new high priest of Rome
is imminent.
A surprise contender is 37-year-old Julius Caesar,
a mid-ranking politician in the government
at the heart of Rome and its empire.
Tom Holland: In 63, Caesar is,
relatively speaking,
a junior magistrate,
perhaps a kind of junior member of the cabinet,
perhaps on the margins of the cabinet.
Caesar is very cool, I think, in almost every sense of the word.
He is very dandyish. He wears his toga
in a distinctive way
to stand out from the crowd, to set aside conventions.
He's making a statement about the kind of man,
the kind of politician that he wants to be.
Narrator: Caesar lives in a time when most countries
are ruled by kings.
Rome prides itself on being a republic.
Here, elected representatives share power.
Holland: Five centuries earlier, the Roman people
had risen up and expelled their king, a haughty tyrant,
and brought the monarchy to an end.
And the republic was designed precisely with the aim
of ensuring that there would never be a king again.
And there's a kind of collective memory among the Roman people,
a deep-seated dread of tyranny.
Andrew Wallace-Hadrill: The basic principle
of the republic
is that no individual can dominate the system.
It's a fundamental part of their rhetoric.
We just don't do monarchy.
Narrator: At the heart of the republic is the Senate,
the seat of government presided over
by an elite body of wealthy aristocratic men.
Shushma Malik: Rome was not a democracy
as we might recognize it now.
But living in a republic in Rome
gives the people more participation
in how Rome makes decisions,
and the republican system of government
essentially means that you have an advisory body,
which is the Senate, made up of the best men,
what the Romans thought of as an aristocracy.
Wallace-Hadrill: Senators are elected in very sharp and bitter
competition with each other,
and Caesar has been making his way up the ladder.
Narrator: Caesar's ambition is to maneuver his way
up the strict hierarchy of the Senate.
The higher the rank, the fiercer the competition.
Right now, Caesar's a mid-ranking aedile.
The ultimate prize is the consulship,
a year-long post shared by two men.
Wallace-Hadrill: To make your way in politics in Rome
brings you status.
And the key Roman word for that is dignitas, your dignity.
Caesar says repeatedly that
dignity was dearer to him than life itself.
"My reputation is everything."
Holland: And so, to win the consulship,
this is what dignitas is all about.
That is the kind of the sweetest fulfillment for a Roman.
I mean, this is why, basically,
Caesar wants to be pontifex maximus.
It's not an end. It's a steppingstone to an end.
[Bird caws, horse nickers]
Narrator: Putting himself forward
for the role of high priest is brazen,
but Caesar is willing to gamble.
Winning would fast-track
his political career.
Malik: The pontifex maximus is the chief priest in Rome,
and as a result, they have quite a lot of power in determining
big questions to do with public business
and the daily routine of Roman political life.
Holland: To hold the most eminent of all the priesthoods
is a very great thing indeed.
It marks you out as a figure of incredible authority.
It's absolutely not the kind of role that someone like Caesar,
a dandyish, slightly louche man, should be going for.
Only someone of supreme self-confidence
and a readiness to play fast and loose with the rules,
who actually enjoys tweaking the tails of
the conservative establishment, could do that.
[Cawing]
Narrator: But Caesar can't do it alone.
He needs a backer to finance his campaign.
Holland: Caesar was aristocratic,
but by the standards of many in the Senate,
he's not particularly rich.
Not only is he not rich, he's essentially
mortgaged up to the hilt.
Narrator: Caesar's solution is to broker a dangerous alliance.
[Growling]
If you want to borrow an enormous sum of money,
there's only one person you go to.
And this is a figure who's notorious
as the richest man in the city,
a man called Crassus.
Federico Santangelo: Marcus Licinius Crassus,
the wealthiest man in Rome.
He has a real estate empire,
owns significant stretches
of the city,
and Crassus likes to have people in his debt.
He uses his money to develop, consolidate, and expand
his network of support.
Holland: Think of the figure of a godfather, a mafia boss,
the most intimidating, the most powerful.
Everyone sees Crassus as a kind of
rather menacing spider at the center of
a web that spreads everywhere.
Santangelo: It can be very dangerous to be
in Crassus' debt.
He can be, according to some ancient reports,
pretty brutal.
Crassus sees in Caesar an extremely capable individual.
He knows that he has all the talent,
all the potential to do extremely well
in the Roman political game.
Caesar is a tremendously valuable asset
and one very much worth investing into.
Holland: It's a gamble.
Caesar knows that by borrowing from Crassus, there is a risk
that he will end up as a fly wrapped up in the web.
♪
Narrator: The high priest will be elected by a public vote.
Caesar plans to appeal to the ordinary people of Rome
by exploiting their plight.
Rome is increasingly divided.
Over 100 years of violent conquest,
it's grown from a small city to a vast empire
stretching across the Mediterranean,
and the spoils of war have brought
a handful of men outrageous wealth.
Wallace-Hadrill: The scale of conquest
is producing enormous influx of money, influx of slaves.
Rome is richer than it's ever been before.
And yet, the greater the wealth of the wealthy in Rome,
the greater the poverty of the poor in Rome.
The people of Rome are half-starved, ill-housed.
They're hundreds of thousands of people
who are not sharing in the wealth that they can see.
And Caesar says, "How do you win
the support of the Roman people?"
By being their friend, by being their supporter,
and be recognized as someone who is on their side.
Narrator: In his current political position,
Caesar's in charge of public festivals
and gladiatorial games.
It gives him a direct line to the impoverished masses.
Malik: Games in Rome are entertainment.
They're something to do, and they're free.
Not only do you get some way to
escape the mundane reality of your life,
but also there's some really vital food
as part of that package as well.
Caesar makes the decision to spend
a considerable amount of money on the games that he throws.
He makes them bigger and better
than those who have gone before him.
Great tables groaning with food,
supplied with wine, um,
all kinds of dazzle, of spectacle.
The accounts we have of Caesar's games
suggest that he did extraordinary things
with gladiators in silver armor.
These kinds of things would be memorable.
Holland: It's about branding so that
your name is on everybody's lips.
And it's a kind of policy, I think, that
perhaps has echoes of the way that in Italy,
Silvio Berlusconi, say, would buy football teams
or own TV channels.
It's a way of wooing potential voters
by entertaining them.
Malik: I don't think there's necessarily any evidence
that Julius Caesar really cares
for the day-to-day welfare of the people of Rome.
Rather, his tactics are very successful
for getting him where he wants to go politically.
♪
[Caws]
Narrator: It's the day of the pontifex maximus vote.
All Caesar can do is hope
his financial and political gamble will pay off.
Holland: Caesar is getting ready to leave his house
to go and hear the election result,
and there's a famous story told about this,
that he kisses his mother good-bye
and he says to her, "Mother, either I come back
"as pontifex maximus,
or I won't be coming back at all."
He knows the stakes are that high,
that he either wins or he faces bankruptcy and political ruin.
♪
[Birds cawing]
He's rolled the dice. He has wooed the voters.
He has convinced them he's their man.
He has won. He wins the office.
♪
It is a very key moment for Caesar.
It lifts him up out of this mass of aristocrats like him,
and it gives him a kind of dignity
that he hadn't previously had.
♪
And now the path stretches ahead of him.
Narrator: High Priest of Rome
and popular with the voting public,
Caesar is now a rising star in the Senate.
Malik: Julius Caesar is very much in tune
with how politics is developing.
Caesar recognizes that the people are going to be
an important part of politics going forward.
Narrator: There are no political parties in Rome,
but politicians fall into two camps.
Caesar is a populares, a politician who believes
decisions should be placed in the hands of the people.
Populares stand in bitter opposition
with the optimates, who believe government ought to rest
solely in the hands of a conservative elite.
Caesar absolutely hates the optimates.
"Optimus" means the best. These are the best people.
And undoubtedly, the optimates in Rome
think of themselves in those terms.
But what Rome needs is not this mob rule,
this horrendous appeal to the unwashed masses.
A populares politician, on the other hand,
thinks that the people have been neglected
in the bigger picture of Rome.
Holland: Caesar's contempt for the conservatives
in the Senate is entirely genuine.
I think he feels that their perspective is old-fashioned,
it's hypocritical,
it ignores the needs of a people in a great imperial capital.
The population of Rome is in a really agitated condition.
Poverty of the masses can lead to revolution.
It's dynamite. It can blow up at any moment.
♪
Narrator: Caesar's brazen wooing of the people
has angered conservative optimates.
So, when, just a few months later,
a conspiracy to violently overthrow the Senate
comes to light, Caesar is dangerously exposed.
Malik: In the same year as we get a new pontifex maximus,
we also have a conspiracy in Rome
known as the Catiline Conspiracy.
And this rocks the political establishment.
A man named Lucius Sergius Catilina
allies himself with those who are disenfranchised,
the poor in Rome who do have resentment
against the Senate,
and decides that, actually, revolution
and the overthrow of the Senate is the way forward.
Narrator: Rumors begin to circulate
that Caesar may have had a hand in the plot.
Caesar may be increasingly popular with the people,
but that, of course, just means that his rivals in the Senate
are watching him with ever greater suspicion.
And those who want to thwart his rise are, therefore,
unsurprisingly, very, very keen to implicate him in the coup.
♪
Narrator: The conspirators are betrayed before they can act.
Five senators, one a former consul, are arrested
and await their fate.
The current consuls want to send a clear message--
execute the conspirators without trial.
Holland: Caesar knows that his enemies are trying to tar him
as someone who perhaps had been taking part in the conspiracy.
So, by taking part in the debate,
Caesar is repudiating that.
This is an opportunity for him to sway the Senate,
and he's not going to let it go to waste.
And he does it very, very brilliantly.
Wallace-Hadrill: Caesar launches into a most moving speech.
And he says what these conspirators have done
is the most appalling crime
for which there should be no mercy.
But our ancestors have established laws.
If we start executing Roman citizens,
what will the Roman people make of it?
He points out that it is against every law of the Roman state
to put to death fellow citizens.
"Therefore, I, Caesar, propose that rather than
execute them, we hand them over and imprison them."
Holland: This is something that is unheard of.
The Romans don't have a kind of prison system.
So, he's doing something radical,
thinking outside the box,
but at the same time, and this is the genius of it,
he's casting himself as the defender of tradition.
Everyone has said, "Oh, yes, we agree.
They should be executed."
Now they say, "Oh, Caesar's right.
"Of course it's much better
not to execute them and to have them imprisoned."
Narrator: Caesar appears to have swayed the Senate.
But the optimates have one young senator yet to speak.
Holland: Rising to his feet, a man
who will become his nemesis, a man called Cato.
Rory Stewart: Cato and Caesar come from similar backgrounds,
but they are
total polar opposites.
Caesar is known
for his flamboyant fashion,
rickety finances, bribing electors.
Cato is somebody who represents
the very most old-fashioned ideal of a Roman gentleman.
Very, very austere. Very simple.
He actually walks around barefoot.
But above all, what he stands for
is the old Roman constitution.
And he sees Caesar as a populist.
In other words, somebody who claims to be
speaking on behalf of the people
but is, in fact, just using that
as a way to destroy the Constitution
and take power for themselves.
And he's disgusted.
He, too, knows how to speak powerfully,
and he puts exactly the opposite case,
which is, This is no time to show mercy.
Preserving the republic is the ultimate priority.
"These people are planning to burn our houses,
"to rape our wives, to end our civilization.
"This is the worst threat you could have.
We must execute them now."
Narrator: Cato is also convinced that Caesar is in on the plot.
But he has no proof.
Holland: Cato is in full flow.
The great conservative,
the man of dignity.
And he looks around, and he sees that
Caesar has been given a message.
And Cato, put off his speech,
thinks, "What on earth is going on?"
And his first thought is, "Wait a second,
"this is a letter from one of the conspirators,
and here's Caesar smirking at me."
Holland: The letter has been sent by
Cato's half-sister Servilia.
Stewart: Caesar, who's having affairs with everybody else,
is also sleeping with Cato's sister.
Holland: Caesar is dragging Cato down
into a kind of dimension of tawdry humiliation and smut
that is calculated to infuriate him.
Stewart: And this is the moment he gives
an astonishing, blistering speech.
Takes no prisoners, and says, "These people, these populists,
"you can't see it yet, but I promise you,
"these people pose an existential threat
"to the survival of the republic,
"and unless you act against them now--
"and by the way, I want to include Caesar in that--
"these people are ultimately going
to bring the whole house crashing down."
[Applause]
Wallace-Hadrill: The Senate swings right around behind Cato.
[Indistinct shouting]
Holland: Caesar is obviously disappointed, I'm sure.
It confirms him in his contempt,
both for the mass of his conservative opponents
and, most specifically, of course, for Cato.
Stewart: Caesar, above all, is ambitious.
He wants to become consul. He wants to rule Rome.
Standing in his way is this infuriating man
that he despises called Cato.
Wallace-Hadrill: This young man shouldn't be
one of the leading figures,
but somehow his speech has established him
as a man with enormous moral authority.
Stewart: This is the moment where he realizes
that he's standing for something.
And that is-- and I was a politician--
it's an incredibly powerful moment in a politician's life
when you find a cause.
And from then on, the cause in Cato's life
is the cause of defending the republic against tyranny.
The time will come when historians of the age
look at this as a defining moment,
because the tension between Caesar and Cato
is clearly expressive of deep tensions
within the fabric of the republic.
[Applause]
Cato wins the day.
Holland: The order is given.
The conspirators will be put to death.
I suspect that the lesson that Caesar takes
from the whole Catilinarian debacle
is that it's fine to play the populares,
that Caesar is brilliant at that,
but that ultimately just doing that is not enough.
He has to have allies in the Senate.
Because if you push too hard against them,
people in the Senate still have the power.
They have the will to close ranks.
He, too, could end up with a noose around his neck.
♪
[Woman speaking indistinctly]
♪
Narrator: As Rome reels from the Catiline conspiracy,
some senators demand extreme measures
to guarantee their safety--
a military presence on the streets of Rome.
♪
They call for Rome's greatest general
to return with his army from campaign in the east.
Shelley P. Haley: Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus
was born into a military family.
Pompey grew up on
his father's military campaigns.
When he was young, his enemies call him
"The teenage butcher," and he becomes
the most powerful general in Rome.
Narrator: The Roman Empire has expanded so far and fast
it's had to hand huge powers to men like Pompey
to command armies and govern territories
far beyond the reach of Rome.
Haley: Pompey has as much power, if not more, than the Senate.
The best modern equivalent is warlord.
Holland: Caesar sees in Pompey
a kind of harbinger of the republic's future.
Because what Pompey has done with the scale of his conquests
is essentially to put the whole of the republic in his shade.
Pompey is a disruptor, and his return
will set the kaleidoscope spinning.
And that offers opportunity
for someone with Caesar's abilities and talents.
Narrator: Caesar backs the call for Pompey's return,
but not all in the Senate agree.
For many optimates, the idea that one man
should take charge of Rome is unthinkable.
Haley: The Senate is extremely worried
about the power that Pompey has.
At their core, they are very distrustful
of one man with too much power.
Narrator: But by supporting calls for Pompey's return,
Caesar's not just rankling his political opponents...
he's risking his alliance with his financial backer--Crassus.
Marcus Licinius Crassus
has good reason not to love Pompey.
Narrator: Crassus fought alongside Pompey
against the slave rebellion led by Spartacus.
Crassus secured the decisive victory,
but Pompey took the credit.
Santangelo: There is a degree of bitterness on Crassus' part.
Let's be clear. Crassus hates Pompey.
Narrator: Caesar pushes ahead.
The law prohibits armed soldiers from entering Rome,
so, Caesar backs a new law
that would allow Pompey to enter the city with his troops.
Like all new bills, it must first be debated in the Senate.
If the majority agree,
only then will it be presented in the Forum,
Rome's public square, for the people to have their vote.
Holland: Caesar, ever unconventional,
sees an opportunity here to play the populares card again.
And so, what he does, he just bypasses the Senate.
He takes the bill directly to the Forum,
which is obviously greeted with fury
by conservatives in the Senate
and particularly, of course, Caesar's great adversary Cato.
[Liquid pouring]
Stewart: Cato walks out and sees to his disgust
that Caesar is trying to whip up a mob in favor of Pompey,
and that Caesar has surrounded himself with gladiators.
And gladiators are basically hired ruffians.
Cato doesn't care. He walks absolutely alone,
straight up the steps, and tells Caesar and the crowd
that they should be ashamed of themselves.
Cato does this nonsensical speech.
"We don't need to put this much power
into the hands of one man."
Cato's fundamental point is the republic
should defend itself through the constitution,
and asserts that the Senate will continue
to rule the country as it should.
And bedlam breaks out.
Stewart: He's hit from every side.
The crowd throw stuff at him.
The gladiators beat him up.
But he doesn't care.
Cato senses that by allowing himself to be beaten up,
he's showing the public what is happening to Rome.
And he will wear those bruises as a source of pride,
because what he's saying is, "Look at these people.
"Look at how they've battered me.
"Look at the kind of leaders that you are
"going to let come into Rome.
How can you possibly support a man who's done this to me?"
Narrator: Cato's tactic works.
Holland: In the end, it's Cato and his followers
who have the better of the whole occasion.
For Caesar, obviously, infuriating.
[Thunder]
[Cawing]
Narrator: The Senate, horrified
by Caesar's brazen use of violence,
have him immediately suspended,
and the public vote on the bill to recall Pompey is aborted.
Holland: Caesar is staring down the barrel, potentially,
of the ruin of his career, having worked so hard.
But actually, what might seem
a humiliation, a defeat, can be turned around.
And this is something that Caesar does
again and again over the course of his career.
Narrator: Caesar uses his sway with the people
to show the Senate he won't bow down.
Two days later, a crowd
spontaneously manifests itself outside Caesar's house.
People in the Senate fear that this is potentially
an armed mob, that, before you can say it,
will be marching on the Senate House.
It's very clear to all concerned
that everyone has a stake in deescalating this.
[Men murmuring]
Narrator: Caesar stands down his angry mob.
The Senate decide it's better to keep him onside
and allow him back.
Holland: Caesar is always alert to new ways of doing politics,
and his use of intimidation and combining it with violence
is a way to, to make things happen in Rome.
Stewart: From Cato's point of view,
the Senate is being weak.
They're worried by his popularity,
but they're also trying to convince themselves
they can somehow control him.
And Cato is increasingly convinced
that the Senate must act against Caesar
before it's too late.
[Birds cawing]
Narrator: Rome is in turmoil,
and Caesar's place in the Senate precarious.
[Indistinct conversations]
But his role as high priest
offers him a chance to regain trust amongst his peers.
His household must host an important ritual
in honor of the goddess Bona Dea,
who looks after the safety of Rome.
Holland: In the case of Bona Dea,
Caesar himself is not personally in charge,
because the Bona Dea is a female-only ritual,
and so, on this occasion,
Caesar is going to have to rely on the women in his family.
Nandini B. Pandey: So, on the scene,
hosting this mysterious and incredibly important party
is Caesar's wife Pompeia.
Caesar's mother Aurelia is part of the ceremony,
and there's no direct evidence
that Caesar's daughter Julia is present,
but it's impossible to imagine that she isn't,
given the importance of this ritual.
I suspect that Julia and Caesar
are quite close.
Julia is, in a way,
his most valuable possession.
She is his only legitimate heir.
Ultimately, she'll be there to make a very useful
political alliance for him through her own marriage.
Narrator: The ritual sacrifice is overseen
by one of the sacred order of priestesses, the Vestal Virgins.
Pandey: Everybody who was anyone
in Roman elite society
who was also female would be part of the ceremony.
So, there's a lot of pressure on his household
to perform the ceremony right,
to perform it well so that the gods
that take care of Rome will be placated.
♪
Suddenly, the word comes to Aurelia
that a mysterious stranger has entered
disguised as a harp player.
♪
It turns out this is a man in drag
trying to sneak into the house of Caesar as pontifex maximus.
Narrator: It's a serious violation.
The women go home, and gossip about Caesar and his wife
spreads like wildfire.
The man who had desecrated the rites of the Bona Dea
by going into Caesar's house had, it was said--
this is the rumor that is buzzing round Rome--
had been conducting an affair with Caesar's wife.
This is not the kind of thing that a Roman man
wants to have said about him.
If he can't control his women,
if he can't control his family,
it would reflect very, very badly
on the pontifex maximus.
Narrator: This is a scandal that Caesar could do without.
To minimize the damage, he's willing to
sacrifice his marriage.
If there's one thing that Caesar hates,
it's the idea that people might be laughing at him.
He doesn't want to seem a figure of ridicule.
So, what he does is brilliantly ruthless, brilliantly witty.
He proclaims that he is going to divorce his wife
not because she had actually been conducting affair,
but because, as he puts it,
Caesar's wife must be above suspicion.
♪
Pandey: There is no way that young Julia
could have been unaware of the trouble
that this scandal causes for her family.
Julia fully recognizes the responsibility
that falls on her shoulders, not just to be a good wife,
to be beyond suspicion in her own marriage,
but also to ensure that she's
protecting the Julian family name.
Caesar's entire genetic future
and some of his political future
are going to rest on little Julia's shoulders.
♪
Narrator: Caesar's reputation has been damaged.
He needs to take back control.
Now the conquering General Pompey
has stood down his army
and is due to return to Rome.
It offers Caesar a fresh chance for a powerful alliance.
Holland: Caesar sees in Pompey the face of the future,
that this is what it is to be great in--
in what the republic has become.
Running through his head is, "I want that."
Narrator: For Caesar, Pompey is the model of success.
But whilst everyone welcomes the wealth he brings to Rome,
many in the Senate are wary.
There's the fear, always the fear,
that the conquering general may set himself up
as the new tyrant of Rome.
Narrator: But Pompey has just one thing
on his political agenda.
Holland: The huge challenge that Pompey faces when he comes back
is to provide land for his veterans,
the legions who've been following him.
This is what Pompey has promised.
The demand for land
by the veterans of the great campaigns
is persistent through time.
What they need is a plot of land to live off.
Haley: Land means independence.
You're not dependent on granaries in Rome
for your little ration.
It means dignity.
Pompey is a man of integrity.
He gives his word. You will have a farm.
He is going to see that through.
Narrator: Pompey puts forward a bill
to award land to his veterans.
But many optimates, including Cato,
are keen to cut him down to size and reject it.
Stewart: Cato still sees Pompey as a danger to the republic.
He's a billionaire celebrity
coming in and throwing his weight around.
It's vital to Cato that these big, overweening men
are marginalized.
When he sees Pompey facing
major difficulties in the Senate,
on the Roman political scene,
surely Crassus must be taking a good deal of pleasure.
Holland: Caesar sees the astonishing spectacle
of Pompey, the conqueror of the gorgeous East.
He's frustrated. He doesn't know what to do.
He's absolutely paralyzed.
Santangelo: Pompey realizes that he's becoming
an increasingly isolated figure,
and that presents him, Pompey,
with a very real strategic challenge--
how to get out of this impasse.
♪
Haley: Pompey realizes that one way
to win over the opponents
is through marriage.
Marriage was a tool for a Roman politician.
Everybody knew it.
Pompey is probably
the most eligible bachelor in Rome at this time.
He's known to be beloved by the ladies,
but also has a strange sense of sexual fidelity for a man.
He's not gadding about, bed hopping,
playing the field like Caesar is.
Stewart: Pompey, this billionaire celebrity general,
comes to Cato and says he wants to marry his niece.
This is a big moment of decision for Cato,
because if Cato allies himself with Pompey,
there's a possibility that through that compromise,
he can keep Pompey on the side of the republic
against people like Julius Caesar.
But in the end, he won't compromise.
Flat out, flat out rejects it.
Stewart: He's not prepared to sully his family
by allying with Pompey.
He says, "I'm not going to be outmaneuvered
by the bedroom of a girl."
This is purely political.
Pompey feels like he has no control
over what's happening politically.
And Cato is thinking, "I've got him."
♪
Narrator: Watching the great commander Pompey
belittled by conservatives in the Senate,
Caesar sees an opportunity
that could serve both of their ambitions.
Holland: Caesar recognizes in the problems
that Pompey is facing massive opportunity.
Pompey needs Caesar, Caesar needs Pompey.
Nothing was going to happen for either one of them
unless they joined forces.
Narrator: Caesar knows the consulship election
is imminent,
when the public will vote for two men
to share the most prestigious
and powerful political position in Rome.
[Flames crackling]
With Pompey backing him, Caesar is certain
their combined popularity will win him
the highest seat in the Senate.
Holland: To be a consul,
to be known by the Roman people
as someone who has served as a consul,
this is the dream that every ambitious citizen
in the republic nurtures.
♪
Narrator: Caesar wins the election by a landslide.
♪
Holland: It's only a few years since he was facing
the potential utter ruin of his career.
Had he failed to win election to pontifex maximus,
he might have ended up a Catiline.
But now he's won the consulship. It is a great, great thing.
Narrator: But two consuls are elected,
and Caesar is expected to share power.
Stewart: The only consolation that Cato has got at this stage
is that the second consul is one of Cato's allies,
but Cato must already be beginning to suspect
that he's maybe not the man to stand up to Caesar.
Narrator: Now he's consul, Caesar needs to make good
on his promise to Pompey
by proposing a bill to award land to his veterans.
Convention dictates that the Senate must debate it first,
and if the majority agree,
it will be put to a public vote.
Holland: It's at this point that Caesar's familiar nemesis,
Cato, stands up.
Stewart: Cato filibusters.
It's something that's still done in the House of Commons,
something that's done a lot in the U.S. Senate.
He speaks and speaks and speaks and speaks,
and he speaks out the debate.
Holland: It looks as though the bill has been defeated.
Caesar's defeat, however, turns out to be
only a seeming defeat.
Narrator: Caesar knows conservatives in the Senate
will do everything they can to obstruct him.
So, he decides to play populares once again
and bypass the Senate entirely.
[Crowd cheering]
He takes the bill straight to the public Forum
for the people to have their vote.
Stewart: What Caesar does is that he moves out of the Senate
and he goes back to the people.
Holland: He takes the bill into the Forum,
and there in the Forum, gangs of heavies,
gangs of Caesar supporters, Pompey's veterans.
A very, very menacing atmosphere.
Stewart: He stands on the rostrum, and he basically
whips up a mob to try to get through what he wants.
Then Caesar brings out his celebrity support...
[Cheering]
Pompey the Great.
It's absolutely political theater.
Crowd goes crazy. "Yay!"
[Cheering continues]
Holland: The real jaw dropper is when
Caesar reveals his second celebrity backer.
And the people go, "Wait a minute.
What is going on here?"
And that second celebrity backer
is Pompey's deadliest enemy--Crassus.
[Crowd cheering]
Stewart: Crassus.
Crassus, a disgusting billionaire
who made his money in the most unscrupulous fashion,
has now allied himself with Caesar and Pompey.
Santangelo: Crassus seized the opportunity
to make himself central in Roman politics
by forging an alliance
with two rather unlikely but extremely effective partners.
Holland: Cato and his supporters gaze in horror
as they realize what this means,
that Caesar somehow has brought together
the two most powerful men in Rome.
Haley: Three men, taken from the Latin "triumvirate."
Whether the Senate likes it or not,
whether Cato likes it or not, doesn't matter.
They are going to control Rome.
It is Cato's nightmare coming to fruition.
♪
Narrator: Caesar presents the land bill to the people.
But before they take their vote,
there is one voice of opposition.
Stewart: The second consul, the elected co-consul of Rome,
effectively the elected prime minister of Rome...
steps forward onto the rostra to try once more
to argue against this bill.
Caesar's not having any of that.
[Crowd cheering]
Holland: Caesar's heavies pile in.
They attack him, they beat him up.
Stewart: It's that moment, I think, Cato
must sense that he's lost.
Caesar just smiles. He laughs,
leaves his colleague to crawl off
and leave Rome to Caesar.
♪
[Birds chirping]
Narrator: Caesar will ensure Pompey's veterans get their land
and that Crassus gets lucrative tax breaks.
For himself, he's lining up the command of Gaul,
now modern France,
a vast, unconquered province
that promises him even greater power and glory.
And he's securing this future with a marriage.
Haley: Pompey, as we know, was rejected by Cato.
But that's a blessing in disguise,
because now he can accept Caesar's proposal
that he marry Julia.
Pandey: All these years, Caesar has been holding on to Julia
as his ace in the hole for maintaining and creating
political alliances and opportunities.
Caesar sees the perfect moment to play that card.
Pompey's marriage to Julia is
absolutely essential to Caesar's ambitions.
It's really this event that solidifies
that alliance is more than just political.
Both Pompey and Caesar are really putting
their skin in the game
by committing to this relationship.
Holland: Caesar has really been adopting
a kind of two-pronged strategy.
The first strategy is to accumulate honors.
So, he's become pontifex maximus.
He's become consul.
But it's that fusion of
the traditional statesmanship
and a readiness to play fast and loose with the rules
that marks him out as someone,
by the standards of the republic, of menace.
He's won the highest political position in the land.
He is effectively the master of Rome.
But here is the question. What next?
♪