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Let the Dice Fly High! (yet another Julius Caesar timeline)


"Alesia," Gaius Julius Aristarchus, c. 1550 AUC

Hello! This is basically a reboot of the Roman TL I tried to do a while back. That one was a little dry, and I eventually lost the will to continue it. Now I’m more informed and feeling more creative, so hopefully I’ll be able to keep this one going. This time around, I’m going to try for a more history book style, as opposed to something like “c. AD 500 – introduction of the stirrup to European armies.” The POD is, just like last time, Caesar’s daughter Julia not dying in childbirth, leading to a very different Roman civil war. Comments are, of course, very much appreciated. Enjoy!

Unless otherwise noted, all entries will be “translated” from the alternate Latin volume Historia Romana by Maschmanus Iosephus Michaelis.

End of the Triumvirate and the Road to Civil War

Upon his return to Gaul from his second expedition to Britannia, Caesar received the pleasant news that his daughter Julia had given birth to a healthy daughter, Pompeia Caesaris. In addition to his joy at the birth of a granddaughter, Caesar had the comforting reassurance that his alliance with Pompeius was secured for the foreseeable future.[1] The new father Pompeius, who had remained in Rome to care for his young wife, soon took up his command in the Spains once it was clear mother and daughter were doing well.[2] Both Caesar and Pompeius were soon overtaken with more pressing concerns from the Gauls and Cantabrians, respectively (see sections Caesar’s Gallic War: the Revolt of Vercingetorix and Pompeius’ Cantabrian War), while events in Rome and distant Syria served to further complicate the triumvirs’ prospects.

In 53 BC Marcus Crassus, the third triumvir, met with disaster on his campaign against the Kingdom of the Parthians. A traitorous guide led the Roman army into a trap near the town of Carrhae, where the Parthian general Surena surrounded and annihilated them. Crassus, his son Publius, and several legates were killed during the battle or its aftermath. Only Crassus’s quaestor Gaius Cassius and 10,000 men managed to escape death by deserting Crassus during the retreat from Carrhae.[3] Cassius returned to Antioch and served as de facto governor of the province until the Senate sent a replacement for Marcus Crassus. Though Carrhae was the Republic’s greatest defeat in decades, most Romans were more concerned with the danger closer to home.

Rome had been consumed by gang violence. Publius Clodius and Titus Annius Milo were candidates for praetor and consul, respectively, and neither could tolerate the idea of the other being elected. Thus, the two marshaled their gangs and battled it out in the streets of Rome. The consuls of the year were powerless to stop the fighting or hold elections and thus, New Years’ Day of 52 BC arrived with no consuls or other senior magistrates. At this point, the boni faction of senators, the bitter opposition to Caesar and Pompeius led by Marcus Porcius Cato and Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus, decided Milo was the lesser of two evils and gave him their support. Within weeks, Clodius was dead, murdered on the Appian Way, though whether there is any connection between these two events cannot be determined. Clodius’ supporters were livid and used the senate house as a pyre for their beloved patron. As the embers of the Curia Hostillia cooled, so too did the tempers of Clodius’ former followers, and elections could at last be held. Sure enough, Metellus Scipio, one of the boni, and Titus Annius Milo were returned as the consuls for 52 BC.[4]

The boni support of Milo proved to be a double-edged sword. While their main goals were to strip Caesar from Pompeius of their commands as soon as possible, Milo had other priorities. It was fairly clear that Milo was responsible for the murder of Clodius, and his focus was to stifle former Clodians and protect himself from prosecution. Not wanting to be implicated themselves, the boni were forced to go along with Milo for their own sakes. While Milo’s alleged crimes may have served as an unfortunate distraction for the boni, his street gangs did prove useful for their attempts to discredit Caesar and Pompey among the people of Rome, as well as to “encourage” voters to support the die-hard boni candidates in the next elections. Cato himself was elected senior consul for 51 BC,[5] and proposed several laws designed to weaken Caesar and Pompeius. Despite a recent law specifically permitting Caesar to run for the consulship from Gaul, Cato’s legislation banned candidates from standing for election in absentia, which would require Caesar or Pompeius to return to Rome itself to gain any new office and thus open themselves to prosecution.

As Caesar and Pompeius dispatched their agents to stall proceedings as long as possible, the boni grew more impatient and, in 50 BC, planned to strip the two proconsuls of their provinces and armies early rather than wait for time to run out. Unfortunately for the boni, Gaius Scribonius Curio, a tribune of the plebs and supporter of Caesar’s, used his tribune’s veto to halt any further discussion of the topic for the remainder of the year. The boni were convinced Caesar and Pompeius had designs on overthrowing the state, and thus instead spent the year strengthening themselves militarily by a devious means. Ostensibly out of fear of an invasion by the Parthians, but in actuality in preparation for a civil war, the Senate voted that Caesar and Pompeius should each give up two of their legions to help defend the East. In addition, funds and military support were forced from the various Roman client-states to “better protect themselves from Parthian attack.” With Curio’s term as tribune set to expire at the end of the year, the boni needed only to wait for the new year to renew their crusade to bring down Caesar and Pompeius.

When New Year’s Day arrived, the situation had grown critical. Respected consular Marcus Tullius Cicero presented a desperate compromise: Caesar and Pompeius would each disband most of their legions, but still be able to serve the remainder of their proconsular terms, albeit in a more limited fashion. The assembled Senators were nearly convinced until Cato had the floor. He launched into a vicious tirade condemning any attempt at compromise as cowardly submission. By speaking until sunset he prevented a vote on the proposal (a textbook example of the “Cato speech,” named for him).[6] In a cautious move, Caesar crossed the Alps into Italian Gaul to monitor the delicate situation in Rome. Back in the city, this innocuous event was inflated into the rumor that Caesar was massing his armies for a march on Rome, and the senators were uneasy. The boni took advantage of the confusion, and the new consuls moved that the Senate pass the Ultimate Decree, the Senatus Consultum Ultimum, to empower the consuls to “take care that the state should come to no harm” from Caesar, Pompeius, or the “obstructionist” tribunes of the plebs. When a newly-elected tribune, Marcus Antonius, tried to veto the motion, he was ejected violently from the meeting of the Senate and fled to join Caesar. The decree was passed and Caesar and Pompeius were stripped of their commands and declared public enemies. When Antonius, still bruised and disheveled, reached Caesar in Italian Gaul, Caesar wrote to update Pompeius and mobilized the three legions stationed in Italian Gaul. With his famous cry of, “Let the dice fly high!” Caesar crossed the Rubicon River into Italia. The Catonian War[7] had begun…

Notes:
[1] Of course OTL, Julia died, Pompey married the daughter of Metellus Scipio, one of Caesar’s fiercest enemies, and ultimately led the fight against Caesar when civil war broke out.
[2] As he’s neither caring for a pregnant Julia nor mourning her death as in OTL, Pompey can actually govern in his provinces, and thus the final conquests in Hispania are done by in the 50s BC rather than during the age of Augustus.
[3] Cassius escaped in OTL, but in this TL is it perceived as less heroic.
[4] OTL, the boni allied with Pompey, but without him, Milo is the best option available.
[5] He was never consul in OTL: Milo’s gangs proved useful.
[6] TTL’s name for the filibuster
[7] When the war is over, blame for the entire war will be laid at the feet of Marcus Porcius Cato, hence the name.
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