Pompey And Caesar: The Weaknesses Of The Republic

Sulla’s march on Rome exposed the weaknesses of the republic and after his dictatorship many political leaders tried to restore the constitution to its formal glory. However, it was only a matter of time before the tensions between political leaders broke this socio political balance. Many people attribute this break to the death of Crassus and Pompey’s wife even though the continued friendship of Caesar and Pompey indicates otherwise, instead, the collapse is more attributed to both the senate’s intervention and triumvirs ever-growing ambition. Furthermore, Pompey and Caesar remained friends in the 50s BC, however, Pompey was stressed by the senate to make a choice between Caesar and the Optimates, through arrogance, Pompey chose the Optimates …show more content…
This led Pompey to seek the friendship of the Optimates and is representative of the first breach in the friendship of Caesar. While this was the event that lead to the Pompey’s friendship with the Optimates, Pompey soon established a balance between them and Caesar. This caused Pompey to view himself as the key to balance in the Roman Constitution. Pompey was often employed as a peace keeping measure by the Senate. This entailed quelling a disturbance in the city which soon led people to talk about a dictatorship, ‘and finally such remnants of the good men as had not already allied themselves with Caesar or Pompey saw that something had to be done and that Pompey would have to be their agent.’ This turned into a balancing act in which Pompey supported both sides, while also exhibiting his dominance, through warnings and displays of their reliance on him. Finally, Pompey’s arrogance peaked during a period at which he fell ill at Campania and the villagers prayed for his wellbeing, as they saw him, ‘…as the Bulwark of the state…’ The war was ignited when the rumours of Caesar marching to Italy took hold and Marcellus took this as a casus belli and told Pompey to defend the city, giving him all of his strength. This turn of events is representative of the arrogance that Pompey had accumulated over his time as a magistrate. But this arrogance had become his Dignitas, as when Marcellus had handed the power to him he was thinking as if he was the only one who was strong enough to stop Caesar, as shown in a quote from Lucan, ‘Caesar can no longer abide a superior, nor can Pompey a match’ Therefore, the allegiance with the Optimates had reversed Pompey’s thinking and he turned on Caesar, the final confrontation was caused by the arrogance that he had accumulated and in order to become superior and protect his own