outclassed by Pompey and Caesar; he was rich, but hardly more so than Pompey when he returned home
with his eastern booty. Like Pompey, Crassus had raised an army and joined Sulla on his return to Italy;
unlike Pompey, he was a notorious profiteer in the proscriptions. What ancient writers liked to
emphasize was his avarice and the political ambition he made it serve. He was said to have augmented
his property by taking advantage of the frequent fires in Rome and the lack of a regular fire brigade:
owners of burning buildings would sell them for a song, and Crassus, with his team of trained slaves,
would repair and rebuild them for profit. A much quoted remark of his was, 'No man is rich who cannot
support an army': the fact that Crassus could may help to explain how he obtained the command against
Spartacus at a time of financial stress.
Less dramatic uses of his wealth included lending money to political associates free of interest, and
providing lavish hospitality. The result, we are told, is that Crassus had considerable influence with the
Senate. It is likely that he was one of the first to take the measure of the changed political conditions
brought about by Sulla's doubling of the Senate's membership. The new men often needed money to
maintain their new station, and they would relish invitations to dine with a noble of ancient family. But
Crassus was not content to be a conservative politician. Shady and unorthodox himself, he liked to
support black sheep and sponsor radical causes. Though resentful of Pompey's successes, he joined him
as consul in 70 in restoring the rights of tribunes, and in successive years he supported several tribunes
on trial. He also lent money to young aristocrats such as Caesar, or funded their electoral campaigns, as
in the case of Catiline. Some of his more daring political initiatives were often unsuccessful: both of his
projects as censor, to enfranchise the communities of Cisalpine Gaul and to exploit the will of the
Egyptian king who left his country to Rome, were baulked by his colleague.
Caesar
While Cato preached and Pompey and Crassus fumed, an abler politician than any of them was planning
how to exploit the situation. 'Caesar, from the outset and as it were by hereditary right the head of the
popular party, had for thirty years borne aloft its banner without ever changing or even so much as
concealing its colours.' So Mommsen wrote of the murdered dictator, 'the sole creative genius ever
produced by Rome'. C. Julius Caesar has been appreciably cut down to size in the past century, but it
remains hard to deny that he was the most consistent politician of the late Republic.