triumphs of the nobiles, from the transmitted memory of the origins, alliances and feuds of their families; and history never be

That was not the opinion of their enemy Cato: he blamed the original alliance of Pompeius and Caesar. 2 When Pollio set out to

It was the age of Pompeius the Great. Stricken by the ambitions, the alliances and the feuds of the dynasts, monarchic faction-

ons the nobiles held and wielded, the family, money and the political alliance (amicitia or factio, as it was variously labelled

ith a well-connected heiress therefore became an act of policy and an alliance of powers, more important than a magistracy, more

y senators were their partners, allies or advocates. Concord and firm alliance between Senate and knights would therefore arrest

xt to the noble families the knights were the most important. Through alliance with groups of financiers, through patronage exer

n the definition of ‘optimus quisque’. PageBook=>016 It was an alliance of interest and sentiment to combat the forces of

d oligarchy held rank not so much from resources of their own as from alliance with houses of the plebeian aristocracy. The grea

e party of Marius, the Metelli got power and influence again from the alliance with Sulla. Q. Metellus Pius led an army to victo

the bulk of the governing coalition is revealed in the relations and alliances between that house and two other groups. The firs

Cato the primacy before consulars: he controlled a nexus of political alliances among the nobiles. The Optimates stood sorely i

the military dynast now returning from the East he would oppose that alliance of stubborn spirit and political craft which his

e when elected consul and the other lent his services to Crassus. But alliance with Crassus need not alienate Pompeius utterly.

.) had been promoted through patronage of the Scipiones. 4 Subsequent alliances had not brought much aristocratic distinction. Po

kept up that connexion by marrying another woman of that house. 2 The alliance with the Metelli, by no means unequivocal or uncl

only personal adherents like Afranius and Gabinius but nobiles in the alliance of the general, seeking profit and advancement in

to reinforce his predominance by the peaceful means of a new dynastic alliance . He saw the way at once. Having divorced his wife

mocked the flaunting victories over effeminate orientals, and scorned alliance with the conqueror of the world. The triumphal ro

g Caesar, the lover of Servilia. 1 There was nothing to preclude an alliance with Pompeius. Praetor-designate and praetor, Cae

the vulgar and untenable opinion that Brutus was Caesar’s son. 2 In alliance , namely, with both Labienus and Q. Metellus Nepos

legate of Pompeius (Appian, Mithr. 95; S1G3 750). 3 Crassus was in alliance with the Metelli not only through his elder son (

hope to persuade Pompeius, making him sacrifice Caesar in return for alliance with the oligarchy. Cicero took heart. He proclai

o harm Pompeius; and Ap. Pulcher may already have been angling for an alliance . 1 The consuls achieved their own disgrace by bar

. Faustus Sulla. ’ PageBook=>040 Pompeius looked about for new alliances , in the hope perhaps to inherit some measure of C

Metelli, though not without quarrels and rivalry, Pompeius broke the alliance when he returned from the East; and the consul Me

great-grandfather (cos. III, 152). PageBook=>044 Pompeius and alliance with the Lentuli may not unfairly be surmised. 1

. Servilia reared her son to hate Pompeius, schemed for the Caesarian alliance and designed that Brutus should marry Caesar’s da

ptured by Pompeius: Julia, the bride intended for Brutus, pledged the alliance . After this the paths of Brutus and of Caesar d

opularis, Pompeius by his latest change of front came back to earlier alliances . Sulla restored the oligarchic rule of the nobi

ompeius’ repute was evil enough with his own class; when he formed an alliance with the Metelli he placed deadly weapons in the

itical history of Rome, patrician houses which seem to have formed an alliance for power with the plebeians when the latter were

ate excuses of his advocate. At the beginning of the year 56 B.C. the alliance of Pompeius, Crassus and Caesar threatened to col

y spread their influence among the local aristocracies by marriage or alliance , northwards to Etruria and south into Campania. 5

iles and sought to break through their monopoly of patronage. Through alliance with the knights and personal ties with the leadi

m Italicum is more comprehensive and no less revealing: it was a holy alliance , a coniuratio of eight peoples against Rome, in t

idus, through his family connexion with Brutus, might prove a bond of alliance between the Caesarians and the Liberators; and no

ulate. 4 Death frustrated his intended candidature, but the Caesarian alliance maintained the fortunes of the family. The widow

of that, the great Pompeius had been forced at the last into a fatal alliance with his enemies the oligarchs. Caesar had been s

tered: it was being rebuilt, this time against Antonius, by a hostile alliance of Caesarian and Pompeian elements. Antonius had

was cast over the earlier and private preliminaries in the anomalous alliance between oratory and arms, between the venerable c

in the interests, not of Octavianus, but of the truth. The political alliance between Octavianus and Cicero was not merely the

ich offered that young man the congratulations, the counsels, and the alliance of a senior statesman. 2 Of that persistent del

ute, ubi es? quantam ∈ὐκαιρίαν amittis! ’ 4 For his views about the alliance between Cicero and Octavianus, cf. esp. Ad M. Bru

propertied classes; and it was presumably in their interests that an alliance between the wealthiest members of the two orders,

and by mutual services (officia), either between social equals as an alliance , or from inferior to superior, in a traditional a

rable estimatė the bond was called amicitia, otherwise factio. 1 Such alliances either presupposed or provoked the personal feud

nge sides. Suitable terminology was available. The dissolution of one alliance and the formation of another was justified by goo

their common enemy civil wars have witnessed stranger vicissitudes of alliance . 3 Yet, even if this did not happen, he might be

th Octavianus with clear perception of the dangers of their equivocal alliance . He had not been deluded then. 2 But during the m

was near, Cicero would not admit to Brutus the ruinous failure of the alliance with Caesar’s heir. He asseverated his responsibi

al compacts among the nobiles were never complete without a marriage- alliance : this time the soldiery insisted on a solid guara

beyond the seas was represented by Pompeius, a group of consulars in alliance and the Catonian faction. 1 Now the Metelli, the

on against the military despotism of the Triumvirate or an interested alliance of the NotesPage=>207 1 Appian, BC 5, 3, 1

f her husband: he neither would nor could go back upon his pledges of alliance to Octavianus. She must force him by discrediting

y of the Caesarian party, was in danger of succumbing to just such an alliance of Caesarians and Republicans as he had stirred u

ooked about for allies. From Sex. Pompeius came envoys, with offer of alliance . 6 Failing a general compact and peace that would

escents upon the coasts of southern Italy. A complete revolution of alliances transformed the visage but not the substance of

of dubious party allegiance. The compact was sealed by a matrimonial alliance . Fulvia, the wife of Antonius, had recently died

s, in this year. Such was the Pact of Brundisium, the new Caesarian alliance formed in September of the year which bore as its

t there was a more important pact than the despairing and impermanent alliance with Pompeius, a more glorious marriage than the

e danger that had menaced him. In a moment of confidence in their new alliance , Antonius revealed the treachery of Salvidienus;

hroughout Italy. Having the best men of both parties in sympathy or alliance , Antonius began with a formidable advantage. It w

cient faith in the principles of any of the Pompeii, into whose fatal alliance they had been driven or duped. Ahenobarbus kept a

and a tiresome character. 1 He then contracted with unseemly haste an alliance that satisfied head, heart and senses, and endure

sarian leaders, he might still exert the traditional policy of family alliances , though the day was long past when that alone bro

of Brutus, was connected with certain eminent Republicans now in the alliance of Antonius, above all Ahenobarbus; 2 and his own

ius without delay. For the moment Antonius was loyal to the Caesarian alliance ; but Antonius, who came to Brundisium but departe

n, is unknown. They were surely employed at an early age for dynastic alliances . It is not known whom Cn. Domitius Ahenobarbus ma

come to Tarentum in the spring of the following year (37). The uneasy alliance was then perpetuated. Antonius lent fleets and ad

s. The compact with Antonius, his presence in Italy, the advantageous alliance and the regular control of patronage improved his

ambition. Ahenobarbus with Antonius, Messalla and other nobles in the alliance of Caesar’s heir, had shown the way. The new mona

dding-gift. 3 The fact is difficult to establish. From the Egyptian alliance Antonius hoped to derive money and supplies for h

ard for Hellenic sentiments would reinforce peace and concord through alliance with the men of property and influence. 1 A day w

affront to his family than the affront to Rome arising from Antonius’ alliance and marital life with the Queen of Egypt. The f

r decision was looming. With Armenia a Roman province and the Mede in alliance , the Roman frontier seemed secure enough. Only a

nemies of Caesar and assassins yet unpunished, to find harbourage and alliance with Antonius. The Catonian faction, after figh

Messalla that the Republic was doomed, or to trust, like Murcus, the alliance with Pompeius (whose whole family he hated), Ahen

reon. 1 Pollio won him for Antonius, and he served Antonius well. The alliance was firm with promise for the future his son was

d emotional appeal, he turned the weight of his attack upon Antonius’ alliance with the Queen of Egypt. Then irony: the grandios

enas and Agrippa. Augustus could not afford to alienate all three. In alliance they had made him, in alliance they might destroy

d not afford to alienate all three. In alliance they had made him, in alliance they might destroy him. The marriage with Livia

destroy him. The marriage with Livia Drusilla had been a political alliance with the Claudii, though not that alone. The cold

se words, of natural and easy interpretation, into an allusion to the alliance between Augustus and Agrippa. 3 Absurd for the af

one man. No sooner destroyed, the Triumvirate had to be restored. The alliance of equals had proved unsatisfactory and ruinous.

enate, they endangered for gain the stability of the Commonwealth: in alliance they perpetuated abuses in Italy and throughout t

k=>364 As has been shown, Augustus affirmed and consolidated the alliance of the propertied classes in two ways by creating

s of the need of aristocratic adherents. The advantageous matrimonial alliance soon showed its effects Ap. Claudius Pulcher and

d unconsummated union with a stepdaughter of Antonius and a political alliance with the unlovable Scribonia to the advantageous

arcellus and two Marcellas, who soon became available for matrimonial alliances , from the second the two Antonias, daughters of

age. The schemes devised by Augustus in the ramification of family alliances were formidable and fantastic. He neglected no re

now deprived of the ruinous profits of political power, debarred from alliances with those financial interests with whom they onc

o dynasts also helped to remove causes of friction and consolidate an alliance perhaps by no means as loyal and unequivocal as t

enjoy a brief and last renascence in the strange but not incongruous alliance of monarchy. Augustus had passed beyond the measu

ish in the shadow of the monarchy, prosecute old feuds, construct new alliances in short, acquire a handsome share of the power a

eat Republican admiral. The Aemilii perpetuated their old political alliance with the Caesarian cause, but not through the Tri

eer. Silvanus became consul along with Augustus in 2 B.C. A political alliance with the Plautii was good Claudian tradition. 3

Aemilii and Fabii stood closely bound by ties of kinship or personal alliance with the Caesarian house. Scarcely less prominent

rmitted by Augustus to govern the great military provinces. They made alliances among themselves and with the family of the Pison

ition or party spirit. Piso’s family became related to the Crassi, an alliance which brought enhanced splendour and eventual rui

’ friend Paullus, held aloof from the politics of the Aemilii and the alliance of his ill-starred brother, the husband of the yo

on the men, who, instead of a partner from their own class, preferred alliance with a freedwoman, or none at all. With marriag

cially the patricians, marshalled their resources and tightened their alliances . Thus did Servilia work for her family, capturing

d Servilia work for her family, capturing the Aemilian connexion. But alliances begot feuds, and the nobiles were involved in the

li. The Domitii, however, survived and prospered through the marriage alliance which the grandson of Caesar’s enemy contracted w

by good fortune, diplomacy or the contraction of serviceable marriage alliances and lasted into the reign of Augustus produced no

dying Republic and under the shadow of the Monarchy. Caesar, with the alliance of the Aemilii and certain other patrician houses

sed of conspiracy. 3 Such was the price of dynastic name and dynastic alliance . The Aemilii and the Domitii Ahenobarbi perpetu

PageBook=>497 By paradox all of these families at first escaped alliance with the ruling dynasty, providing no victims at

ar, so a wit of the Republic observed. 3 Yet this family survived the alliance with Pompeius Magnus, inherited from the Scipione

Sosius, Antonius’ admiral. 2 M. Titius had no known progeny from his alliance with the patrician Fabii; and other novi homines

ban and Sex. Afranius Burrus from Vasio, the Prefect of the Guard, in alliance govern the world for Nero, dispensing patronage a

y and connexions, 25, 64, 68; early career, 25, 29, 32; consulate and alliance with Pompeius, 8, 33 f.; his consular province, 3

ff.; position in 62 B.C., 30; dynastic marriages, 31 f., 36, 40, 43; alliance with Crassus and Caesar, 8, 34 f.; his control of

gned in the main to illustrate the political history and the marriage alliances of the Principate of Augustus, omits certain chil

able V. V. THE DESCENDANTS OF POMPEIUS This table illustrates the alliances between the descendants of Pompeius, Sulla, Crass