I mentioned in another post how lavishly Caesar was distributing money in the years before he crossed the Rubicon. His bribes of the tribune Curio and the consul Paullus are either intimated or specified in ancient sources from Caelius to Plutarch to Appian. It suddenly struck me that Caesar's blatant bribes at this time might well have been the primary reason he feared prosecution.

One of Pompey's significant accomplishments as sole consul in 52 was his new law designed to rid politics of bribery. It was a crude law, unfortunately, in that it permitted those accused or prosecuted of taking or giving bribes the opportunity to expunge their crime by successfully accusing others. Pompey also allowed accusations to be made retroactively to the year 75, the year of his own first consulship. Pompey's law was draconian and had the predictable result of creating a climate of persecution. Many accusations were spurious and vengeful. Some likened the political climate to the times of proscriptions under Cinna and then Sulla. Many fled Rome rather than go to trial or left in exile after prosecution. Appian writes that (and here I paraphrase; I will post the actual citation tonight) "the exiles from Pompey's bribery law fled to Caesar and warned him that Pompey's law was aimed at him."

Whether or not Pompey did actually have Caesar in mind when he drafted the bribery law is one question; another is whether Caesar, himself, feared the possibility of falling victim to it. It seems quite likely that Caesar would have been an easy target given his aggressive briberies of tribunes and others. Could this law have been the real cause of Caesar's fears?