Pompey's Bribery Law

Author: * Demetrios Xanthippos - 11 Posts on this thread out of 968 Posts sitewide.
Date: Jun 4, 2003 - 09:01

It seems possible to me that Pompey’s bribery law was directed at Caesar. After all, bribery had always been a key component of Roman politics, even if never so lavish as then. That was why so many others were affected and the climate reminded people of the proscriptions. He had, in effect, outlawed the standard order of procedure.

The wonder is that he got the law through at all. I imagine there were a lot of senators wondering just why it was that they gave Pompey a sole consulship. It could be that this was another example of his political naiveté, but I wonder. It would have been difficult to get the senate to agree to something like this that affected so any of them, but spin it to Cato and the boni as a way to disenfranchise Caesar and suddenly you have a lot of support. That may also be the reason for the codicil allowing the accused to accuse others to avoid punishment. They were probably supposed to accuse Caesar, who would be highly unlikely to stoop to such an escape route himself. Unfortunately, senators were a vicious, back-biting lot who lost no chance to settle personal scores.

Now if potential and actual victims of the law fled to Caesar and told him that Pompey was out to get him, it may mean that the word on the street (or at least in the senate) was exactly that; the intended victim of the bribery law was Caesar and that was pushed through. At the very least, it shows that the rift between Caesar and Pompey was well-known.

On another note, it is clear that Pompey did not fare well in public opinion during the early empire. Tacitus takes a couple of opportunities to blacken Pompey’s memory:

Pompey was chosen to reform public life in his third consulship. But his cures were worse than the abuses; and he broke his own laws. Force was the means of his control, and by force he lost it. --Annals, III.28 or 29
After [Marius and Sulla] came Gnaeus Pompey, who, though more secretive, was no better, and from then on the one and only aim was autocracy.--Histories, II.38

Pompey may not have gotten the best press under Augustus and his successors, but there were a number of important and influential people descended from him and his statues and images were still to be seen in the forum and on the Field of Mars. One or two of his descendants who fell foul of various emperors even used his name in their appeals for mercy. Clearly he was no hero to later generations, but he had not been turned into an un-person either. And his reputation was not very good.