Chapter 487: Chapter 355: Rampant Pirates
Cicero agreed to the request of the Sicilians, not just because Sicily was where he started his career, and the Sicilians saw him as their patron, but more importantly, he needed this opportunity to make a name for himself and establish his authority in the Roman legal world, so his name would be on the lips of the Roman populace.
Coincidentally, the defense lawyer hired by Valerius was the Roman Elder Hotenius, who had been the most famous lawyer in Rome for the past decade. He was known for his graceful demeanor and eloquent speech and had close ties with Sula. He even delivered the eulogy at Sula’s funeral, maintaining an important position within the Senate.
The difficulty of winning this lawsuit was obvious, but it only fueled Cicero’s determination.
Through his relentless efforts, he gathered substantial evidence of Valerius’ crimes.
On the day of the trial, he skillfully avoided engaging in a verbal spar with Hotenius, thus avoiding dragging the case into a prolonged battle, and instead presented all the evidence upfront.
This sudden move disrupted Hotenius’ plans and focused the attention of the judges and the public entirely on the criminal evidence.
Hotenius relinquished his right to defend, and the trial concluded swiftly.
Before the verdict was announced, Valerius fled hurriedly with his family to Massilia.
The news spread throughout Rome: Hotenius’ domination over the legal field was over; Cicero wore the crown.
From then on, Cicero became a celebrity in Rome.
In the blink of an eye, it was a new year (69 BC, the fourth year of Nix), and Caesar, who was elected as a financial officer, was sent by the Senate to Outer Spain to serve as an assistant to the provincial governor Antistius Vetus.
Just before his departure, he suffered two unexpected blows: his aunt Julia and his wife Cornelia passed away successively, for which he held two grand funerals.
At Julia’s funeral, Caesar gave a speech, talking about her illustrious ancestors (the Ulysses clan was descended from the goddess Venus) and her mother’s family’s connection to the ancient kings of Rome, but did not mention his controversial uncle, Marius. However, he included symbols of Marius’ victories in the funeral procession and allowed an actor to play Marius, and remarkably, no one present protested.
It was traditional for elderly noblewomen of Roman aristocratic families to receive a grand public funeral upon their death, but Caesar accorded his wife Cornelia the same honor.
He was the first Roman to publicly hold such a grand funeral for such a young woman.
This gesture greatly resonated with the people, as many saw it as an expression of grief from a kind-hearted man. After all, in his youth, Caesar had rejected Sula’s pardon for the sake of his wife, forcing him into years of wandering. Despite his numerous romantic affairs, the public was convinced through this funeral that he truly loved his wife.
Romans valued funerals, and Caesar used the funerals for his aunt and wife as a successful self-promotion.
Sula, although he won the civil war, did not gain much public favor, and Roman citizens did not accept all of his decisions at face value. Therefore, after his death, many of his decrees were overturned one after another.
In this era, aristocrats held sway, and the common people’s lives became increasingly difficult. Thus, the Roman people began to miss the days when the Civilian Faction was in power, especially since, in many minds, Marius was still a great hero; he restored the pride of the Romans after their setbacks in Africa and saved Italy from the northern barbarian threat.
The Civilian Faction’s two leaders, however, had long passed away, and the faction itself had been obliterated by Sula and his followers’ continuous suppression. Yet, after these two funerals, many Romans suddenly realized that Caesar, as Marius’ nephew and Qinna’s son-in-law, was not merely an unconventional, romantic Roman youth, but likely the best successor to the Civilian Faction.
While the Romans were still abuzz about the funerals, Caesar set off for Outer Spain to manage the province’s finances, while also representing governor Vetus in various local activities.
Vetus, who greatly trusted Caesar, sent him to various places to handle judicial affairs, which he accomplished successfully, earning praise from the local populace.
In late autumn of that year, Caesar arrived in the city of Cadiz, Spain, to handle court affairs.
In his free time, he visited the local Hercules temple and saw a statue of Alexander the Great, bursting into tears because the Macedonian King had already conquered half of the world at the same age, while he himself had yet to achieve anything remarkable.
Additionally unsettling him was a dream he had shortly after; he dreamt of raping his mother, Aurelia.
Anxious and uneasy, he consulted a prophet.
The prophet interpreted his dream: he was destined to rule the world because the mother he raped represented Mother Earth, the mother of all things.
These two events finally prompted him to decide to leave the province early and return to Rome’s political arena to pursue his ambitions.
His friend, provincial governor Vetus, approved his early departure and properly managed the financial affairs after his departure to avoid any accusations against Caesar.
Upon returning to Rome, one of the first important things Caesar did was to remarry. His new bride was Pompeia, the granddaughter of Sula, and the granddaughter of Quintus Pompey (who was co-consul with Sula in 88 BC).
Having been trained in provincial administration, Caesar had become more tactful in his actions; on one hand, he made a big show of his kinship with Marius, while on the other, he used this marriage to ease the conservatism-entrenched old senator’s hostility towards him.
Despite being distant relatives, Pompeia and the great Pompey were not closely connected, so Caesar’s second marriage seemed not to directly associate him with Rome’s most celebrated and beloved general of the time.
During his time as consul, Pompey was frequently ridiculed by Crassus. After leaving office, he learned his lesson, maintaining a constantly humble posture and thus showed an average performance in the Senate.
This did not mean that Pompey began settling for the status quo. On the contrary, trapped in Rome’s political scene, characterized by intertwining power, interests, intrigues, and ambition, he increasingly longed for the resounding acclaim victory on the battlefield once brought him. He began patiently waiting for an opportunity to obtain a new military command post.
At this time, all the provinces and territories under Roman rule were at peace, except for Little Asia.
There, under Lucullus’s leadership, the Roman army had completely conquered Pontus. King Mithradates fled to neighboring Armenia, where he was protected by King Tigranes.
Lucullus sent an envoy to demand Armenia’s king hand over Mithradates, but Tigranes refused.
So, without Roman authorization, Lucullus declared war on Armenia.
Soon, he destroyed Armenia’s army and captured its important city, Tiglanocerta.
The most powerful nation in the Two River Valley crumbled before Lucullus, and therefore his position as military commander became unshakeable.
On land, Pompey had temporarily no opportunity to command troops, but opportunities always existed for naval command, due to rampant Mediterranean piracy.
The issue of Mediterranean piracy had long existed; however, after Rome started invading and ruling the Eastern regions, pirates became rampant. The main reason was that Rome established hegemony over the whole Mediterranean, dissolving all local authorities to prevent them from threatening Roman interests but refused to assume direct management responsibilities. The result was that Rome cleared the battlefield for pirates, providing them fertile ground.
In disorderly regions stripped of authoritative rule, pirates at least offered local residents some order, so some towns paid pirates protection fees, while others offered ports. As a result, the pirate ranks swelled, and their presence could be seen throughout the Mediterranean.
Eventually, pirates began to threaten Roman citizens themselves; Caesar’s kidnapping by pirates was not an isolated event. In the past decade, being captured by pirates had become a part of the career hazard for young Roman noblemen.
However, Roman nobles needed a large number of slaves, especially high-quality ones, and pirates were the most reliable suppliers. In several major southern ports of Italy, such as Tarentum, up to ten thousand slaves could be traded daily. This vast scale of trade brought enormous income, fattening pirate chiefs and Rome’s major financial oligarchs.
Some Roman aristocrats even maintained pirates, reaping huge profits while also harming their opponents.
The support and indulgence of Roman nobility allowed pirate ranks to grow ever larger, increasingly capable of occasionally severing Mediterranean trade routes.
The essentials requested by Rome, from slaves to grain, began to face pirate threats.
The Senate hesitated, but the public clamor grew ever louder. Hence, the Senate had to respond to public demands by dispatching Marcus Antonius a year before the Spartacus uprising to assume command, tasked with maintaining maritime security and exterminating pirates.
Marcus Antonius was a great lawyer before Cicero, once serving as Roman Governor and leading a fleet to destroy Cilicia, a primary pirate stronghold.
But the Marcus Antonius the Senate dispatched this time was the great lawyer’s son; the saying "Like father, like son" did not apply to him.
Antonius II had no military skill, known to all in the Senate. His selection showed that some interest groups in Rome did not want the pirates cleared out.
Upon his appointment, Antonius II completed two significant accomplishments, as some senators desired: first, he engaged in profitable pirate activities around Sicily; second, the fleet he deployed suffered a major defeat at the hands of genuine pirates near Crete.