Page:Roman Constitutional History, 753-44 B.C..djvu/266

252 slain or taken prisoners in the campaign. The chief remnant of the army was saved by the quaestor Gaius Cassius Longinus.

The death of Crassus involved far-reaching consequences. He had from the beginning served as the ally of Caesar to offset the preëminent renown and influence of Pompeius. At Luca he had obtained a province and an army, in order that he might counterbalance the new military position of Pompeius. He had never been the equal of his confederates, but his participation in the triumvirate had facilitated the distribution of the regal power, which is so difficult of division, and had postponed the ultimately inevitable question of personal supremacy. His death was, therefore, a great loss to Caesar, an advantage to Pompeius, and the harbinger of civil war.

Estrangement of Pompeius and Caesar. — Private affairs hastened the course of events. Julia, Caesar's daughter and the wife of Pompeius, died in 54, and this occurrence tended to estrange the rivals. No immediate rupture took place, however. At the request of Caesar, Pompeius, on his own authority, hence illegally, sent him in 53 one of the legions which had been levied for Spain, but remained in Italy.

Even the report of the death of Crassus did not lead Pompeius to adopt a definite line of action, but it increased his desire to become a dictator, and he became readier to enter into an alliance with the oligarchy against Caesar. Moreover, when Caesar asked for the hand of his daughter and offered to give him his own grandniece in marriage, Pompeius declined, and married the daughter of Metellus Scipio. This was, perhaps, the first definite step toward a breach. On the other hand, when Caesar requested permission to be a candidate for the consulship in 49 while absent from the city, and ten tribunes published a bill in favor of his request, Pompeius supported the bill and it