🔘 MOTIVATIONS FOR THE FIRST TRIUMVIRATE

“It was in Caesar's consul­ship that there was formed between himself, Gnaeus Pompeius and Marcus Crassus the partner­ship in political power which proved so baleful to the city, to the world, and, subsequently at different periods to each of the triumvirs themselves. Pompey's motive in the adoption of this policy had been to secure through Caesar as consul the long delayed ratification of his acts in the provinces across the seas, to which, as I have already said, many still raised objections; Caesar agreed to it because he realized that in making this concession to the prestige of Pompey he would increase his own, and that by throwing on Pompey the odium for their joint control he would add to his own power; while Crassus hoped by the influence of Pompey and the power of Caesar he might achieve a place of pre-eminence in the state which he had not been able to reach single-handed. Furthermore, a tie of marriage was cemented between Caesar and Pompey, in that Pompey now wedded Julia, Caesar's daughter.”

Velleius Paterculus, Roman History