The Mad Tycoon of Rome

Chapter 26 Honor and Profit 

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Pompey was speechless for a moment.

He had thought of various scenarios when he came here.

He had prepared responses for Crassus’s possible anger, threats, or even pleas.

But he had never expected Crassus to say something like this.

“You asked the Senate to grant me a triumph instead of you? Why? What’s your purpose?”

“To be precise, it was a bit different. I said that if anyone deserved a triumph, it would be Pompey, not me. Something along those lines.”

“That makes even less sense… Knowing your personality, you should have definitely requested a triumph for yourself. Aren’t you really Marcus Licinius Crassus?”

Pompey had always seen Crassus as a person who never gave up any benefit he could get.

He would cling to any opportunity and seize it with his tenacity.

A personification of greed who knew no satisfaction.

That was the Crassus that Pompey knew.

Crassus lifted his cup leisurely, looking at Pompey’s incredulous expression. 

The annoyed look he had when they first met had disappeared by now.

“I can understand why you find it hard to believe. But I made this decision after thoroughly weighing the pros and cons. It seemed to be the most profitable option for me.”

“Profitable? What profit can you gain by giving up a triumph?”

A triumph was the highest honor a Roman could achieve in his lifetime.

Only the generals who had won significant wars were qualified to enjoy this honor.

A triumphant general would ride a chariot pulled by four horses through the streets of Rome and offer sacrifices to Jupiter.

During this process, the citizens and soldiers would praise and cheer for the commander who had brought them a glorious victory.

It was also a custom of the triumph to distribute the spoils of war to the citizens as gifts.

Naturally, the citizens would welcome this enthusiastically. It was as if the victorious general was giving them financial benefits as well.

That’s why the impact of a triumph was almost absolute.

Once a person had a triumph, he could easily secure the position of consul for the next year.

And Crassus had never had a triumph before.

Even Pompey, who had his first triumph at 25, was eager to have his second one.

There was no way that Crassus, who was facing his first triumph in his life, would give it up.

Pompey spoke with a face full of distrust.

“I have a feeling that you are plotting something bad. I can’t trust you.”

“Believe it or not, that’s up to you. But I have something to negotiate with you as well. So let me be honest with you. I don’t intend to make unreasonable demands to the Senate.”

“How can you say that? You could easily request a triumph based on your achievements. Why is that unreasonable?”

“I could request it. If I manipulate public opinion well enough, I could force the Senate to accept it. But that would also risk making unnecessary enemies, don’t you think?”

It was a somewhat plausible reason, but not entirely convincing. 

Pompey snorted and tilted his head.

“You’re afraid of antagonizing the Senate? You, Crassus? Since when did you become so passive?”

“Of course, if it were just me, I could ignore whatever the Senate says. But someday, my son will have to enter the Senate too, won’t he? If I think about the future, I don’t want to be too confrontational with the Senate.”

“Son?”

This was an unexpected topic that came up.

When Pompey left Rome five years ago, Crassus’s sons were too young to remember their faces.

But he had a clear impression that Crassus was not a very affectionate father.

Naturally, Pompey’s rebuttal came out of his mouth.

“You were never a very loving father, were you?”

“I wasn’t, would be more accurate. But when I see my son growing up to be better than me, I feel like I want to support him with all my might. You’ll understand that naturally when your child grows up too.”

“Child…”

Paternal love was still an unknown emotion for Pompey. 

That’s why he couldn’t tell if Crassus’s words were true or false.

“I’ll have to hear your proposal first. Then I can judge if you’re lying or not.”

“By all means. Just so you know, I’m only giving up the triumph, not anything else. I still need to have an ovation at least, to save my face. And I’m also planning to take the consulship next year.”

“That’s fine… Anyway, there are two consuls, so you and I will be elected. Isn’t that already a foregone conclusion?”

Crassus and Pompey each had tens of thousands of soldiers under their command. 

Most of them were eligible voters who would cast their ballots in the next election.

The commanders who led the armies usually promised their subordinates some benefits and received their votes.

Crassus had no problem running for consul, as he had met all the strict requirements set by Sulla.

He had already served as the senior praetor, so it was a natural step for him to run for consulship. 

The problem was Pompey.

He had not gone through any of the qualifications needed to become a consul. 

Strictly speaking, he did not even have the right to be a senator, let alone a consul.

The only issue was that there was no one in Rome who could match his military talent.

The Senate had racked their brains and granted Pompey the status of a former consul, giving him imperium.

Of course, this whole process was illegal.

And yet, Pompey regarded his becoming a consul in the next election as a done deal.

Crassus felt his stomach twist at such brazen confidence, but he did not show it.

“As long as you use your legion to intimidate them, the Senate won’t be able to oppose your candidacy. But what about running the state? The Senate won’t have much affection for you, will they?”

“…What are you trying to say?”

“In other words, you need my help to perform your consulship smoothly.”

“That makes even less sense. I’m the one who’s losing out here, why are you offering to compromise? It doesn’t add up. Besides, we both need each other’s help.”

Pompey was not unwilling to make a deal with Crassus either.

He wanted to pass laws that would benefit his soldiers anyway, and that required the cooperation of both consuls.

No matter how a consul proposed a law, the other consul could veto it and make it fail.

Crassus would also want to pass laws that he favored, so a strategic alliance between the two was necessary.

Crassus did not deny it either.

“Fine. Let’s agree not to interfere with each other for now. What I want is for you to take care of the things that would annoy the Senate. You have the guts and the achievements to ignore their opinions, don’t you?”

“Ah… I get it now. So you want to hold the power, but you don’t want to be hated by the Senate? That’s why you’re giving up things like the triumph, and you want me to play the bad guy.”

Pompey’s eyes turned cold.

No matter how he justified it, it meant that he was afraid of the Senate.

He secretly scoffed at Crassus’s weakness.

He was young and had never failed in his life, so he was not afraid of the Senate.

He didn’t care how much the old foxes of the Senate barked, as long as he could crush them with his skills.

‘Has he lost his edge after becoming a father and raising a son? That’s disappointing.’

It was not a bad thing to compromise or consider the other party’s feelings.

It was better not to provoke someone who seemed unbeatable.

Pompey himself had grown his strength under Sulla when he was young.

But the choice of whom to compromise with also showed the size of one’s ambition.

Pompey felt no need to please anyone in Rome after Sulla’s death.

This was not arrogance.

Without Pompey, Lepidus’s revolt and Sertorius’s rebellion would not have been suppressed so easily.

Rome needed Pompey. 

This was an undeniable fact.

He did not regard someone who racked his brains to avoid antagonizing the Senate as a worthy rival.

Pompey concluded that Crassus’s limit was here.

“I’ll do as you wish. But in return, you have to make sure that I get the triumph and run for consul.”

“Don’t worry. I’m a person who keeps his contracts more than anyone else in Rome.”

“Alright. It seems like we’re done with your business, so let me ask you something I was curious about.”

“……?”

He was a bit surprised by the unexpected situation, but he had settled everything by now. 

Pompey brought up the real reason why he came here.

“I heard you made something that would revolutionize the training of cavalry…”

“The stirrups?”

“Is that what you call it? I was wondering what kind of thing it was, so I looked around your cavalry on my way here. Do you… understand the value of what you made?”

Crassus chuckled at Pompey’s suspicious gaze.

Pompey had not seen the heavy cavalry yet.

Marcus had hidden them all so that they wouldn’t catch Pompey’s eye.

The heavy cavalry were almost like a special unit that Crassus had raised with his own money. 

He had no intention of putting them into the official roster of the Roman army yet.

They had performed amazingly in the last campaign, but it was hard to know their exact nature from rumors alone.

The enemies who were trampled by the cavalry were poorly armed rebels, so there wouldn’t be many people who would highly praise them.

 But Pompey was a person who deserved the word genius when it came to military matters. 

He had seen through the value of the stirrups just by looking at the ordinary cavalry who wore it.

He was curious to see how great it was, but it turned out to be more than he imagined.

He couldn’t believe that Crassus had made such a thing.

Crassus seemed to see through Pompey’s mind.

He didn’t like the look that underestimated his military talent.

“Did you think I wouldn’t know such a thing? The existing cavalry had to spend a lot of time and effort from their childhood to learn how to ride. But with this thing, they can reduce that time and cost drastically. If the cavalry power is maximized, then naturally the range of tactics they can use will also widen incomparably.”

“So that’s how it is…”

He had given a textbook-like answer, but Pompey’s expression was sour.

He muttered softly with an unsatisfied look.

“…You didn’t make it on purpose, did you? It was just a lucky accident. I guess I overestimated you too much. That’s impossible.”

He didn’t seem to need to change his opinion of Crassus.

Pompey emptied his cup in one gulp and got up from his seat.

He had finished his business here.

He had many things to worry about, such as the future political situation, the reinforcement of the cavalry using the saddle.

He said a brief goodbye and returned to his camp.

But Pompey didn’t know.

A lie had to mix some truth to be convincing.

That’s why Pompey interpreted and believed Crassus’s words in his own way.

If he had lied from the beginning to the end, Pompey would have surely doubted him.

It was as Marcus had told him.

Crassus smiled as he watched Pompey leave.

It was a smile of victory.

※※※※

The Senate was turned upside down when they received Pompey’s letter.

They immediately convened the Senate to review Pompey’s demands.

Of course, most of the senators vehemently opposed Pompey.

“He wants a triumph, that’s fine. But he also wants us to allow him to run for consul? On what grounds does Pompey think he can be a consul candidate? He has never held any office, not even a quaestor or an aedile!”

“That’s absolutely unacceptable! Why do you think Sulla made the qualifications for the Senate more strict? It was to reorganize the shaky order of seniority. If we allow exceptions for someone who has outstanding skills, we can’t maintain the rule of the few.”

“That’s right. Pompey is not even old enough to be a praetor, let alone a consul.”

According to the current Roman law, one had to become a quaestor first to become a senator. 

The minimum age was 30. 

Anyone younger than that couldn’t even apply. 

After that, one could run for praetorship at 39, and only those who were elected praetors could qualify for consulship.

But Pompey had never been a quaestor, as the senators pointed out.

He had already received imperium and commanded a legion in his twenties, so he didn’t feel the need for that.

This was already an unprecedented exception.

“Even Scipio Africanus, who defeated Hannibal, never asked for such an outrageous privilege. We acknowledge Pompey’s merits. But did he achieve as much as the great Africanus? No, he didn’t.”

“That’s right. Even if we concede a hundred times, we can only compromise on letting him run for praetorship. A person who has never held any office becomes a consul right away? We can’t allow such a precedent!”

The senators raised their voices with the conviction that they had to protect this republican system.

But Cicero was a bit different. 

He cautiously stood up from his seat and suggested that they should be prudent.

“Pompey’s demands are excessive, I agree. But it’s also true that we don’t have a clear reason to refuse him. The Senate has already sent him to Hispania Citerior as a proconsul.

By law, a proconsul can naturally run for consulship. He needs to wait for ten years to run again, but Pompey has never actually been a consul. That means we can’t stop his candidacy with the re-election rule either. If he argues that we should accept him as a candidate since he is a proconsul, we might have trouble.

“No, but still, his age…”

“It was the Senate who gave him the title of proconsul and imperium, even though he was not old enough. If we say now that it was a wrong decision, it will damage the prestige of the Senate.”

“Sigh…”

No one could refute Cicero’s words. 

And although they didn’t say it out loud, they all felt the immense pressure from Pompey’s legion.

A Roman general was supposed to disband his army and return as a private citizen as soon as his mission was over.

But Pompey didn’t do that.

Instead, he stayed put, as if waiting to see how the Senate would handle his demands.

If they offended Pompey here, there was a possibility that he would march on Rome with his army.

It was not an unreasonable fear, since there were already precedents of Marius and Sulla.

And Pompey was not the only one who had an army.

Crassus also had eight legions with almost no losses.

The Senate was sure that Crassus would also use his force to demand a triumph and a consulship, just like Pompey.

Crassus had the right to be a consul, so they could easily accept his candidacy. 

The problem was the triumph.

A triumph was a ceremony to commemorate a great victory by a general.

Granting Crassus a triumph meant recognizing slaves as enemies of Rome.

Considering Rome’s pride and the Senate’s dignity, they couldn’t allow that.

Pompey had finished off the remnants of the rebels, so some suggested that they should just give him all the credit and let him have one triumph.

But the situation was not that simple.

The rebels led by Crixus had inflicted enormous damage on southern Italy.

It was too big to be dismissed as a mere revolt of slaves.

On the other hand, what about Pompey?

He had shown a petty attitude of interfering in other people’s wars for his own fame and merit.

He had also demanded privileges that he shouldn’t have, using his force to pressure the Senate.

Crassus’s humble attitude stood out even more in contrast to Pompey’s arrogant behavior.

The situation went exactly as Marcus had said.

Crassus was not lying when he said he didn’t want to antagonize the Senate.

But Marcus’s trick was not just that.

His real trick was to plant the perception in the senators’ minds that Crassus was the protector of the republic.

For that, Marcus and Crassus had solved all the problems that the Senate was worried about in advance.

Crassus had declared that he would follow whatever the Senate decided for his province after his consulship.

He had also officially stated that the merit of this war was largely due to the Senate, who had given him imperium.

They had boosted the Senate’s dignity so much that the senators couldn’t help but be satisfied.

“We don’t have to worry too much about a brat like Pompey running wild. Don’t we have a loyal colleague like Crassus? If we support him a little, he can easily check Pompey.”

“Indeed. Ha ha ha, I’ve been losing sleep over this, but now I can finally rest well.”

The Senate would thoroughly check anyone who showed signs of becoming a dictator.

Even the hero Scipio had been impeached by the senators who feared his growing influence.

Caesar was also assassinated.

The only one who successfully neutralized the Senate was Octavianus, the future first emperor.

Marcus had based his plan on Octavianus’s method.

The wolves in the mountains who only looked for prey to keep their power did not know the meaning of the clouds that surrounded the sky.

By the time they felt something was wrong, it would be a situation where they couldn’t use any means.

Marcus’s shadow was slowly infiltrating a corner of the Senate, unknown to anyone.