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From Bertolt Brecht's novel fragment,
The Business Affairs of Mr. Julius Caesar
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History Lessons
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Mummlius Spicer.
Banker.
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00:09:36,554 --> 00:09:39,785
At that time he wasn't doing anything
anymore, far as I know.
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00:09:40,234 --> 00:09:45,388
He'd tried to find a profession
and make money.
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00:09:46,034 --> 00:09:48,714
He'd tried being a lawyer
in two suits
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for the Democratic Clubs against
high Senate officials,
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for extortion and abuses
in the provinces.
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00:09:57,594 --> 00:10:02,224
The City paid young lawyers from
good families well for such suits.
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00:10:02,314 --> 00:10:05,226
It was the old fight between
the City and the Senate.
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00:10:05,954 --> 00:10:12,029
Since the dawn of time 300 families shared
all high offices in and outside Rome.
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00:10:13,074 --> 00:10:15,114
The Senate was their Exchange.
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00:10:15,114 --> 00:10:18,550
There they bargained who'd
sit on the Senate bench,
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who the judge's chair,
who on the battle horse,
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and who just on his estate.
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00:10:25,394 --> 00:10:29,034
They were great landowners who
treated other Roman citizens like
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servants, and servants like serfs.
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00:10:31,994 --> 00:10:34,554
Merchants they treated like thieves,
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inhabitants of conquered provinces like
enemies.
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One of them was the old Cato,
great grandfather of our Cato,
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who in my and C's time led
the Senate part.
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00:10:46,514 --> 00:10:51,514
He praised 2nd-century legislation,
whereby the thief had to pay back twice
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00:10:51,514 --> 00:10:56,463
and the money-lender four times.
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00:10:57,834 --> 00:11:02,783
A generation before mine they made
a law that no Senator could do business.
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00:11:04,034 --> 00:11:07,234
The law came too late,
it was got round at once.
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00:11:07,234 --> 00:11:11,147
One can do anything with laws
- except stop trade.
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00:11:11,594 --> 00:11:14,834
The law even led to extended
trading companies
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in which each of 50 partners
owns a 50th of a ship,
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00:11:20,394 --> 00:11:24,467
so that he controls 50 ships
instead of just one,
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00:11:25,714 --> 00:11:29,024
but you can see where these
gentlemen were headed.
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They were distinguished generals,
quite able to conquer provinces,
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but they didn't know what to
do with them afterwards.
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00:11:38,434 --> 00:11:41,153
But as our commerce grew
out of infancy
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00:11:41,634 --> 00:11:45,547
and we began to export oil,
wool and wine in greater quantity,
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and to import grain and other things,
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and especially as we wanted to export
money and put it to work in provinces,
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00:11:54,074 --> 00:11:58,274
these gentlemen showed their highborn
inability to move with the times,
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00:11:58,274 --> 00:12:02,711
and the young City realised
we lacked rational leadership.
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00:12:03,514 --> 00:12:08,514
Understand, we felt no desire at all
to get on a battle horse,
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or to squander our time,
which was money,
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on unpleasant seats of office.
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00:12:14,114 --> 00:12:16,994
The gentlemen could peacefully
stay where they were -
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but only under a solid leadership
of the City.
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00:12:21,794 --> 00:12:25,389
Take the Punic War for example.
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We'd conducted it for the best reasons
there are:
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namely, to beat down African
competition.
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00:12:32,594 --> 00:12:34,585
But what came of it?
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00:12:34,754 --> 00:12:38,474
Our military men took away from
Carthage not her products and taxes,
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but her walls and warships.
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00:12:41,074 --> 00:12:44,305
They didn't fetch the corn,
they fetched the plough.
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00:12:44,914 --> 00:12:49,914
Our generals said proudly, ''Where my
legions set foot, grass grows no more.''
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00:12:49,914 --> 00:12:53,111
But what we'd wanted was
exactly that grass.
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You know, from one of those grasses
bread is made.
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00:12:58,034 --> 00:13:02,983
What was conquered in the Punic War,
at immense cost, was wastelands.
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00:13:03,274 --> 00:13:07,194
These territories could well have fed
our entire peninsula.
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00:13:07,194 --> 00:13:10,354
But for the Triumph in Rome,
our generals took away from them
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everything they needed to work for us
- their field tools, their field slaves.
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00:13:17,674 --> 00:13:21,223
And after such a conquest
came a similar administration.
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00:13:21,394 --> 00:13:25,182
The governors only write the figures
in their own household books.
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00:13:25,914 --> 00:13:29,474
You know no clothing has more pockets
than a general's coat.
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00:13:29,474 --> 00:13:33,387
But the governors' clothes
were nothing but pockets.
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00:13:34,154 --> 00:13:37,034
The gentlemen, when they set foot
again on home soil,
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jangled with metal no less than
if they'd come in armor.
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00:13:41,234 --> 00:13:46,183
Cornelius Dolabella and Publius
Antonius, the figures young C sued,
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00:13:46,634 --> 00:13:49,148
had loaded half Macedonia
on to their ships.
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00:13:51,274 --> 00:13:56,223
In such a way, naturally one couldn't
set up any real commerce.
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00:13:58,114 --> 00:14:02,274
After every war there were failures and
suspension of payments in Rome.
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00:14:02,274 --> 00:14:05,505
Each victory for the troop
was a defeat for the City.
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00:14:05,954 --> 00:14:09,026
The triumphs of the generals
were triumphs over the people.
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00:14:09,834 --> 00:14:15,147
The cry of woe that arose after Zama,
the battle that ended the Punic war,
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was bilngual.
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00:14:16,794 --> 00:14:21,504
It was the cry of woe of the Punic
and of the Roman banks.
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00:14:21,794 --> 00:14:24,114
The Senate slaughtered the milk cow.
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00:14:24,114 --> 00:14:27,823
The system was rotten
through and through.
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00:14:31,714 --> 00:14:34,308
All this was the talk of the town
in Rome.
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00:14:34,674 --> 00:14:39,314
They chattered in every barber's booth
about the moral rot of the Senate.
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They even chattered in the Senate itself
about
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00:14:42,234 --> 00:14:45,829
''the necessity for a thorough
moral regeneration.''
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00:14:46,034 --> 00:14:50,234
Cato, the Younger, saw a black
future for the 300 families.
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00:14:50,234 --> 00:14:52,954
He resolved to do something
for their good name,
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00:14:52,954 --> 00:14:55,394
and in the cities he governed in
Sardinia,
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he went out on foot with just one
servant
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00:14:59,714 --> 00:15:02,467
who carried the coat and paten
behind him.
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00:15:02,994 --> 00:15:05,954
And when he returned from his Spanish
governorship,
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he sold his battle horse beforehand,
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because he didn't feel justified charging
its transport costs to the state.
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00:15:14,154 --> 00:15:16,314
Unfortunately his ship struck
a storm.
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00:15:16,314 --> 00:15:19,274
He was shipwrecked and lost his
account books,
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00:15:19,274 --> 00:15:22,914
and for the rest of his life lamented that
he couldn't prove to anyone
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00:15:22,914 --> 00:15:25,792
how decently he'd conducted
his affairs.
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00:15:26,314 --> 00:15:28,748
He knew his attitude was
unbelievable.
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00:15:29,114 --> 00:15:34,114
The City held for nothing ''setting a
good example'' and moral speeches.
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00:15:34,114 --> 00:15:38,585
It saw clearly what was lacking:
officials must be paid.
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00:15:39,234 --> 00:15:42,114
For the gentlemen performed their
office for honor's sake;
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to take money for it seemed
insulting to them.
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With such high ideals there was
naturally nothing left to them
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but to steal. And they stole
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from corn tributes, road building,
water from state aqueducts.
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00:15:56,154 --> 00:15:58,748
The City, as I was said,
was not unreasonable.
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It contacted merchants in
conquered provinces
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00:16:02,554 --> 00:16:06,074
and encouraged them to
institute lawsuits.
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00:16:06,074 --> 00:16:07,746
Thus there were lawsuits.
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00:16:07,834 --> 00:16:12,783
Cicero himself, the City's great trumpet,
conducted a few for Sicilian firms.
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00:16:14,834 --> 00:16:18,194
But with time our Senate gentlemen got
use to lawsuits,
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as one gets used to rain:
one puts a coat on.
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00:16:21,994 --> 00:16:24,508
From then on they no longer
stole a lot from a few,
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00:16:24,834 --> 00:16:26,834
but a little from many.
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00:16:26,834 --> 00:16:29,951
And when suits threatened,
they stole everything.
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00:16:30,394 --> 00:16:32,589
To conduct lawsuits, money is needed.
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00:16:32,674 --> 00:16:37,509
So from those they plundered, they also
stole the costs of possible suits.
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00:16:37,634 --> 00:16:42,034
Then rich Democratic Clubs in Rome
started financing suits
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00:16:42,034 --> 00:16:46,186
against the Senatorial robbers,
against the most shameless of them
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00:16:46,794 --> 00:16:51,743
- those who hindered the business of
even Roman merchants in the provinces.
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00:16:52,794 --> 00:16:57,743
These suits did bring a little discredit,
and, perhaps more importantly,
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young lawyers could work themselves
in on the subject.
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00:17:01,834 --> 00:17:05,986
For here it wasn't enough to make
some witty speeches:
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the lawyer had to get and coach
witnesses,
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00:17:10,474 --> 00:17:14,990
and to distribute money skillfully, so
that judicial mechanism was well oiled.
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00:17:15,554 --> 00:17:18,990
We even got young lawyers
from Senatorial families.
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00:17:19,714 --> 00:17:23,548
In no other way could they study
the administrative machinery better.
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00:17:23,994 --> 00:17:28,431
One has to have bribed once to be able
to let oneself be bribed properly.
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C lost both lawsuits.
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00:17:34,394 --> 00:17:36,714
Some think because he
was inefficient.
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00:17:36,714 --> 00:17:38,909
I think because he was
too efficient.
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00:17:39,554 --> 00:17:42,874
The latter is suggested by
his having to leave afterwards,
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in order, he himself told me,
to get out of the way of
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00:17:46,114 --> 00:17:49,345
the hostile atmosphere stirred
up against him.
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00:17:49,434 --> 00:17:54,383
He went to Rhodes, supposedly to
perfect himself in the art of speaking.
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00:17:55,074 --> 00:17:58,154
Since this motivation for hasty
departure
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00:17:58,154 --> 00:18:00,874
doesn't sound exactly glorious
for a young lawyer,
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00:18:00,874 --> 00:18:06,312
one presumes there were other motives for
going that'd have sounded less glorious.
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00:18:08,674 --> 00:18:14,670
True, a lawyer sometimes can earn
more losing a suit than winning it.
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00:18:15,314 --> 00:18:19,387
But one shouldn't do this already with
the very first suit one obtains.
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00:18:20,954 --> 00:18:24,788
It was a weakness in this young man
that he did nothing by halves.
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00:18:25,434 --> 00:18:29,473
Presumably he wanted right from
the start to be a real lawyer.
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00:18:29,914 --> 00:18:33,270
He did just the same thing later
with military leadership.
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I got white hair through it.
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00:18:35,754 --> 00:18:39,713
But he was considered rather early on
as a coming man in the Democratic Party?
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00:18:39,794 --> 00:18:41,705
Yes, he was considered
a coming man.
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He came for money.
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00:18:43,754 --> 00:18:45,392
They were keen on names.
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00:18:45,834 --> 00:18:51,306
His family was one of the 15 or 16
oldest Patrician families of the city.
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00:18:51,834 --> 00:18:55,354
You can't deny it speaks for
a Democratic disposition
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that he totally rejected Sulla's
demand that he divorce his first wife,
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Cornelia, because she was Cinna's
daughter.
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00:19:02,194 --> 00:19:05,425
Do you mean he wasn't serious
about that either?
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Why shouldn't he have been serious?
Cinna had made a pretty fortune in Spain.
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That was confiscated.
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Not from C.
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00:19:13,714 --> 00:19:17,229
When that threatened, he went with it
and with Cornelia to Asia.
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00:19:17,314 --> 00:19:20,434
So you think his refusal to part with
Cornelia
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had nothing to do with
political convictions.
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00:19:23,674 --> 00:19:26,393
And no doubt love had nothing
to do with it either?
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00:19:26,874 --> 00:19:30,264
No doubt he couldn't love
at all, in your view?
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00:19:30,954 --> 00:19:32,626
Why should I think that?
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00:19:32,914 --> 00:19:35,109
It was just then that he was in love.
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A Syrian freedman.
I forget his name.
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00:19:38,874 --> 00:19:43,874
Cornelia, if people are to be believed,
was rather irritated about it.
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00:19:43,874 --> 00:19:46,394
Already on the ship it came
to unpleasant scenes,
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00:19:46,394 --> 00:19:49,192
and the Syrian insisted that
C divorce.
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Like Sulla.
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00:19:51,314 --> 00:19:53,474
But C didn't give way to
him either.
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00:19:53,474 --> 00:19:58,229
He didn't, even if it disappoints you,
let his heart rule his head.
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00:19:58,394 --> 00:20:01,909
And the burial he prepared for
her and his aunt?
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That was political.
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00:20:04,314 --> 00:20:08,394
In the funeral procession, he had wax
masks of Marius and Cinna carried.
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00:20:08,394 --> 00:20:12,626
He got 200,000 sestertii from
the Democratic Party for it
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00:20:13,434 --> 00:20:16,234
His family, above all his mother,
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whom I've told you about
- a very sensible woman -
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00:20:19,434 --> 00:20:21,425
blamed him for it for a long time.
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00:20:22,234 --> 00:20:27,183
200,000 sestertii, that was no more
than one paid for two good cooks.
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00:20:27,754 --> 00:20:30,794
But the Clubs thought the
payment sufficient,
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00:20:30,794 --> 00:20:34,634
because there was no longer any
danger attached to such demonstration:
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00:20:34,634 --> 00:20:37,228
the Praetor by then was
already a Democrat.
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He always needed money.
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He even tried the slave trade once.
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00:20:53,434 --> 00:20:56,426
You've no doubt heard the
story about the pirates?
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00:20:56,914 --> 00:20:59,712
Would you mind repeating
what you know of it?
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Young Caesar was captured by pirates
near the island of Pharmacusa.
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00:21:05,314 --> 00:21:10,263
They maintained considerable fleets
and covered the sea with many vessels.
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00:21:10,594 --> 00:21:15,873
At first he scoffed at the pirates because
they asked for only 20 talents ransom.
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Didn't they know whom they'd caught?
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00:21:18,514 --> 00:21:21,674
He spontaneously offered
to pay them 50.
184
00:21:21,674 --> 00:21:25,986
And at once he sent companions to
various towns to raise the money.
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With his physician, his cook and two
manservants, he remained behind
186
00:21:30,274 --> 00:21:32,634
with the murder-hungry Asians.
187
00:21:32,634 --> 00:21:35,954
He continued to treat them so
contemptuously
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00:21:35,954 --> 00:21:38,874
that whenever he lay down to sleep,
he ordered them to keep quiet.
189
00:21:38,874 --> 00:21:41,194
38 days he spent in such a way
190
00:21:41,194 --> 00:21:45,874
that the pirates seemed to be his
bodyguard, rather than he their captive.
191
00:21:45,874 --> 00:21:49,474
Without the least fear
he joked and played with them.
192
00:21:49,474 --> 00:21:52,034
Now and then he even composed
poems and speeches
193
00:21:52,034 --> 00:21:53,714
and read them to them.
194
00:21:53,714 --> 00:21:57,874
Those who didn't admire them he called
blockheads and barbarians,
195
00:21:57,874 --> 00:22:00,707
and often laughingly threatened
he would have them hanged.
196
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The pirates had fun with him and took
his speeches as charming jokes.
197
00:22:05,794 --> 00:22:10,154
But as soon as the ransom came from
Miletus and he was set free,
198
00:22:10,154 --> 00:22:13,514
he manned vessels in Miletus with
armed men
199
00:22:13,514 --> 00:22:16,347
and put to sea against the pirates.
200
00:22:16,754 --> 00:22:21,554
He found them still at anchor off the
island and overpowered them.
201
00:22:21,554 --> 00:22:25,554
Their riches he regarded as
legitimate booty,
202
00:22:25,554 --> 00:22:29,234
but them themselves he handed over to
the prison of Pergamos
203
00:22:29,234 --> 00:22:33,634
and then went to Junius, Governor of
Asia, to procure from him punishment
204
00:22:33,634 --> 00:22:35,147
of his prisoners.
205
00:22:35,434 --> 00:22:39,954
But as Junius thought only about what
had been taken from the pirates,
206
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which certainly came to an
imposing sum,
207
00:22:42,714 --> 00:22:45,786
and so answered indecisively
that at the moment
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00:22:45,874 --> 00:22:48,594
he'd no time to worry about
the prisoners.
209
00:22:48,594 --> 00:22:52,223
Caesar, without further word to him,
went back to Pergamos
210
00:22:52,594 --> 00:22:57,594
and on his own authority had all the
pirates nailed to the cross,
211
00:22:57,594 --> 00:23:01,303
as he'd so often jestingly
predicted to them on the island.
212
00:23:52,674 --> 00:23:56,223
Almost everything in his life
already looks like that.
213
00:23:57,874 --> 00:24:02,026
I'll tell you what it was.
It was the slave trade.
214
00:24:05,114 --> 00:24:10,114
The little affair falls in the period when C
used the burial of his first wife and aunt
215
00:24:10,114 --> 00:24:13,789
as a demonstration for Democracy,
216
00:24:13,914 --> 00:24:18,034
immediately after which he'd started
suits against the Senators' infractions
217
00:24:18,034 --> 00:24:19,990
in the provinces.
218
00:24:21,954 --> 00:24:24,314
It had to do with his trip to Rhodes,
219
00:24:24,314 --> 00:24:27,784
where he wanted to learn
speechmaking from a Greek.
220
00:24:28,994 --> 00:24:32,543
Our young lawyer liked to do
several things at the same time.
221
00:24:33,074 --> 00:24:35,269
And as mentioned,
he needed money.
222
00:24:36,154 --> 00:24:39,066
So he took with him a shipload
of slaves:
223
00:24:39,274 --> 00:24:41,874
as I remember, skilled Gallic
leatherworkers
224
00:24:41,874 --> 00:24:44,513
that one could get rid of down
there with profit.
225
00:24:45,274 --> 00:24:46,946
Naturally, it was smuggling.
226
00:24:47,714 --> 00:24:52,663
The big slave traders of Asia Minor
had old contracts with our harbors,
227
00:24:52,994 --> 00:24:55,554
as well as with the Greek and
Syrian ones,
228
00:24:55,554 --> 00:24:59,866
which ensured them a monopoly of
slave transport in both directions.
229
00:25:00,594 --> 00:25:04,194
The slave trade, you see, was a
well-organized business branch
230
00:25:04,194 --> 00:25:07,754
backed with much capital,
Roman too.
231
00:25:07,754 --> 00:25:10,034
On the slave market in Delos,
232
00:25:10,034 --> 00:25:14,585
up to ten thousand head were
sometimes sold in a single day.
233
00:25:15,234 --> 00:25:21,104
The slave traders' links with the capital
traders were close and well-organized.
234
00:25:22,314 --> 00:25:26,754
Only later, when the City set up
its own slave trade,
235
00:25:26,754 --> 00:25:30,827
was there friction with the
export trust of Asia Minor.
236
00:25:31,074 --> 00:25:36,274
Our tax farmers, under the protection of
the Roman eagle and in deepest peacetime,
237
00:25:36,274 --> 00:25:41,154
arranged regular slave hunts in
the Provinces of Asia Minor.
238
00:25:41,154 --> 00:25:45,834
The Cilician and Syrian firms resisted
the competition,
239
00:25:45,834 --> 00:25:48,951
which they thought unfair,
as best they could.
240
00:25:49,194 --> 00:25:53,994
The struggle for slave monopoly soon
led to a quite beautiful sea war.
241
00:25:53,994 --> 00:25:59,394
Transport ships were captured and
slave cargoes confiscated in all directions.
242
00:25:59,394 --> 00:26:04,787
Roman firms insulted Asia Minor ones,
and Asia Minor pirates Roman ones.
243
00:26:05,594 --> 00:26:11,271
C went in winter, when storms made
one safer from the Asia Minor corsairs.
244
00:26:12,234 --> 00:26:13,986
But they still captured him.
245
00:26:14,314 --> 00:26:18,148
They took his cargo
and put him in custody.
246
00:26:18,714 --> 00:26:22,794
As you know from history books,
he was treated with utmost delicacy.
247
00:26:22,794 --> 00:26:25,514
They left him his doctor and
manservants,
248
00:26:25,514 --> 00:26:28,434
and even listened patiently
to his poems.
249
00:26:28,434 --> 00:26:33,034
The good people of Asia Minor even put up
with this brutality and remained polite.
250
00:26:33,034 --> 00:26:38,506
He only had to pay the damages, which
were calculated by cargo size.
251
00:26:39,194 --> 00:26:41,150
It was 20 talents.
252
00:26:42,194 --> 00:26:46,634
The rest I'm telling you I have from
Proconsul Junius,
253
00:26:46,634 --> 00:26:50,434
who then officiated down there and
whom I got to know as an old man.
254
00:26:50,434 --> 00:26:54,791
He investigated the affair,
because a big scandal blew up.
255
00:26:56,274 --> 00:27:01,223
C then turned, through messengers, to
the towns of Asia Minor for the money.
256
00:27:01,834 --> 00:27:05,714
He hid that it was damages for
slave trading,
257
00:27:05,714 --> 00:27:09,468
and claimed it was ransom
extorted by pirates.
258
00:27:09,594 --> 00:27:13,223
And he asked not for 20 talents,
but for 50.
259
00:27:13,634 --> 00:27:17,183
They were raised.
He never paid them back.
260
00:27:18,154 --> 00:27:22,154
Freed, he journeyed to Miletus,
manned a couple of ships
261
00:27:22,154 --> 00:27:25,674
with gladiator slaves, and took back
from the Asians
262
00:27:25,674 --> 00:27:28,434
the ''ransom'' as well as
his slave cargo.
263
00:27:28,434 --> 00:27:32,634
Moreover, he dragged to Pergamos
not only the Asian corsair crew,
264
00:27:32,634 --> 00:27:39,107
but also slave traders who'd sent it out,
as well as all stocks of slaves there.
265
00:27:41,634 --> 00:27:48,267
Summoned by Junius to explain,
he demanded the Asians all be treated
as pirates.
266
00:27:48,914 --> 00:27:54,113
And when Junius refused and inquired
too persistently for further details,
267
00:27:55,234 --> 00:27:59,834
he journeyed under cover of darkness
to Pergamos and by forged orders
268
00:27:59,834 --> 00:28:04,783
had the Asians nailed to the cross so that
they could testify nothing against him.
269
00:28:05,554 --> 00:28:10,954
In addition, because he'd pulled a
fast one over the terrible ''pirates,''
270
00:28:10,954 --> 00:28:14,594
by jokingly threatening them with
crucifixion and then doing so,
271
00:28:14,594 --> 00:28:18,553
he acquired a reputation for humor with
the historians,
272
00:28:19,194 --> 00:28:20,866
Totally unwarranted.
273
00:28:21,074 --> 00:28:26,023
He didn't have a grain of humor.
But he had initiative.
274
00:28:35,114 --> 00:28:38,106
I don't understand how by then
he already had the power for all that.
275
00:28:38,194 --> 00:28:42,745
He has as much power as any puppy
from a Senatorial family.
276
00:28:43,194 --> 00:28:44,991
They did what they wanted.
277
00:28:47,994 --> 00:28:52,194
You shouldn't forget that C had
merchants hanged here,
278
00:28:52,194 --> 00:28:56,665
if you want to measure what difficulties
Junius had as a result.
279
00:28:57,314 --> 00:29:02,786
It wasn't yet the case that the Asia Minor
firms could officially be called pirates.
280
00:29:03,394 --> 00:29:06,354
Now they're called pirates
in the history books.
281
00:29:06,354 --> 00:29:10,984
Since they're written by us, naturally
we bring our own view of things.
282
00:29:11,714 --> 00:29:16,714
But even then a moral campaign against
the Asians had been started in Rome
283
00:29:16,714 --> 00:29:19,194
with a heap of money.
284
00:29:19,194 --> 00:29:23,754
It was claimed they were procuring
their wares in an unlawful way.
285
00:29:23,754 --> 00:29:28,066
Indeed, some even reproached them for
inhuman treatment of their wares.
286
00:29:28,394 --> 00:29:32,994
At the same time it was clear that the
wares seized by governors in campaigns
287
00:29:32,994 --> 00:29:35,914
suffered far more in
transportation.
288
00:29:35,914 --> 00:29:39,589
To the military it was all the same
how many head arrived.
289
00:29:39,714 --> 00:29:42,994
The traders, on the other hand, lost
money with each man,
290
00:29:42,994 --> 00:29:45,224
and thus provided sanitary
freighting.
291
00:29:46,434 --> 00:29:50,154
But only years after the little incident
we're discussing
292
00:29:50,154 --> 00:29:55,103
did Roman firms succeed in making
their cause Rome's cause.
293
00:29:55,674 --> 00:29:58,394
They helped the mood in the Forum
a bit
294
00:29:58,394 --> 00:30:01,994
by having a few Roman grain ships
opportunely captured
295
00:30:01,994 --> 00:30:05,034
by some sort of Greek freebooters.
296
00:30:05,034 --> 00:30:07,354
Only then could they scream
for state help
297
00:30:07,354 --> 00:30:10,346
and demand application of the
pirate law.
298
00:30:11,234 --> 00:30:16,434
But the City didn't get the Roman war fleet
for its struggle against Asian competition
299
00:30:16,434 --> 00:30:17,753
without a struggle.
300
00:30:18,154 --> 00:30:21,783
In this too, morever, C played a role,
even if a discreet one.
301
00:30:23,274 --> 00:30:27,954
When in the year 87 the People's
Tribune Gabinus
302
00:30:27,954 --> 00:30:30,714
demanded from the Senate
on behalf of the City
303
00:30:30,714 --> 00:30:35,663
that the Roman war fleet be given to
Pompey to fight the ''pirates,''
304
00:30:35,794 --> 00:30:39,946
he was nearly lynched by milords
the landowners.
305
00:30:40,274 --> 00:30:43,594
They hand long-term contracts
with the Asians,
306
00:30:43,594 --> 00:30:48,543
and could tolerate no interruption or
reduction of slave imports:
307
00:30:49,194 --> 00:30:53,554
their giant estates were not
manageable without slaves.
308
00:30:53,554 --> 00:30:59,231
They had no wish to give the City
a monopoly in slave imports.
309
00:31:00,474 --> 00:31:03,193
They feared monopoly prices.
310
00:31:04,634 --> 00:31:06,989
The City called upon the people.
311
00:31:07,114 --> 00:31:10,345
The Democratic Clubs went
into action.
312
00:31:10,594 --> 00:31:13,434
Naturally it didn't happen without
a little demagogy.
313
00:31:13,434 --> 00:31:16,234
To the people one must speak
in popular style.
314
00:31:16,234 --> 00:31:21,034
They emphasized ( C, too, was one of
the orators ) the cheap slave prices
315
00:31:21,034 --> 00:31:25,983
of the Asia Minor firms, through which
Roman artisans were deprived of bread.
316
00:31:26,514 --> 00:31:31,907
Among small farmers bitterness at the
Senate's opposition was quite universal.
317
00:31:32,154 --> 00:31:38,024
Use of slaves by large estates weighed
horribly on the small peasant holdings.
318
00:31:38,554 --> 00:31:43,154
They hoped to be able to throttle not
only the slave traders of Asia Minor,
319
00:31:43,154 --> 00:31:46,354
but also the whole slave trade.
320
00:31:46,354 --> 00:31:50,427
In Etruria, the Senate had to send in
the army against raging peasants.
321
00:31:53,354 --> 00:31:56,354
The municipal proletariate, too, suffered
from the fact
322
00:31:56,354 --> 00:32:01,030
that entrepreneurs were ruining
artisans' wages with cheap slave labor.
323
00:32:01,314 --> 00:32:03,514
However scales were turned against
them,
324
00:32:03,514 --> 00:32:06,834
when slave import firms,
young and strong in capital,
325
00:32:06,834 --> 00:32:10,994
contrived a small rise in wheat prices
and spread the rumor
326
00:32:10,994 --> 00:32:13,952
that pirates were obstructing
import of wheat.
327
00:32:15,074 --> 00:32:17,827
And naturally money was poured out
on all sides.
328
00:32:18,354 --> 00:32:23,747
Pompey, like the other lictors, was always
preceded by men with sealed envelopes.
329
00:32:23,874 --> 00:32:26,874
So at the people's assembly,
people only laughed
330
00:32:26,874 --> 00:32:33,222
when old Catulus of the Senate, after a
flowery enumeration of Pompey's merits,
331
00:32:33,474 --> 00:32:37,234
beseeched that such a man not be
exposed to the dangers of a war.
332
00:32:37,234 --> 00:32:41,474
And when he cried in despair, ''Whom
will you have left if you lose this one?,''
333
00:32:41,474 --> 00:32:43,994
they shouted, grinning,
''You!''
334
00:32:43,994 --> 00:32:49,514
And when another speaker warned of
handing over such power to a single man,
335
00:32:49,514 --> 00:32:53,634
they raised such a shriek that a raven
which was flying over the market
336
00:32:53,634 --> 00:32:56,228
fell stunned by it into the assembly.
337
00:32:56,394 --> 00:32:59,545
It was probably on its way to fetch its
share of the public money.
338
00:33:00,234 --> 00:33:03,114
Yet the whole fuss would have been
of no use
339
00:33:03,114 --> 00:33:07,585
if they'd not pressed into a dozen
Senators' hands
340
00:33:07,674 --> 00:33:11,034
a heap of sahres in the
slave import firms.
341
00:33:11,034 --> 00:33:14,274
Only now did the affair become
a national affair
342
00:33:14,274 --> 00:33:18,392
and Pompey get the war fleet
for the City.
343
00:33:19,314 --> 00:33:21,114
The price of wheat fell by half,
344
00:33:21,114 --> 00:33:24,948
in three months the sea was cleaned
of Asian competition,
345
00:33:25,034 --> 00:33:30,034
and immediately thereupon Pompey,
through a mere amendment, so to speak,
346
00:33:30,034 --> 00:33:32,994
got the supreme command
in Asia.
347
00:33:32,994 --> 00:33:34,586
He fetched the slaves.
348
00:33:34,834 --> 00:33:39,783
You understand, the little man voted
twice in succession for the same man.
349
00:33:40,514 --> 00:33:43,074
But he didn't do the same thing twice.
350
00:33:43,754 --> 00:33:47,954
His naval war could pass as a blow
against the slave trade,
351
00:33:47,954 --> 00:33:52,345
but his land war meant slave trade
on the largest scale.
352
00:33:52,714 --> 00:33:57,469
Half a year later the slave market
in Rome was flooded out,
353
00:33:57,834 --> 00:34:00,029
this time by Roman firms.
354
00:34:03,874 --> 00:34:06,954
Moreover, Cicero made his
maiden speech at this time.
355
00:34:06,954 --> 00:34:10,788
He spoke for conferring the supreme
command on Pompey.
356
00:34:11,714 --> 00:34:16,663
Where he got his honorarium
you can work out for yourself
357
00:35:49,034 --> 00:35:53,312
I saw him only twice in ten years.
What do you want to know about him?
358
00:35:53,394 --> 00:35:54,543
Were you in Gaul with him?
359
00:35:54,634 --> 00:35:58,274
Yes, sir, we were with him.
Three legions, sir.
360
00:35:58,274 --> 00:35:59,754
Did you see him from close up?
361
00:35:59,754 --> 00:36:04,034
500 paces once,
1,000 paces the other time.
362
00:36:04,034 --> 00:36:08,474
Once, if you want to know exactly,
at a parade in Lucus,
363
00:36:08,474 --> 00:36:11,954
which meant four hours extra drill.
364
00:36:11,954 --> 00:36:14,994
The other time at the
embarcation for Britannia.
365
00:36:14,994 --> 00:36:16,274
He was much loved?
366
00:36:16,274 --> 00:36:17,754
He was thought smart.
367
00:36:17,754 --> 00:36:20,154
But the simple man had confidence
in him?
368
00:36:20,154 --> 00:36:25,103
Provisions weren't bad.
He say to that, so they said.
369
00:36:28,194 --> 00:36:29,547
Were you in the Civil War?
370
00:36:29,634 --> 00:36:31,794
O yes. On Pomey's side.
371
00:36:31,794 --> 00:36:32,594
How so?
372
00:36:32,594 --> 00:36:35,994
I belonged to the legion he'd
squeezed out of Pompey.
373
00:36:35,994 --> 00:36:40,434
He gave it back before
the Civil War broke out.
374
00:36:40,434 --> 00:36:41,150
I see.
375
00:36:41,274 --> 00:36:46,223
Tough luck. I lost my indemnity.
And he paid very decent indemnities.
376
00:36:46,354 --> 00:36:48,504
But I could not choose.
377
00:36:48,594 --> 00:36:50,154
Why did you become a soldier?
378
00:36:50,154 --> 00:36:51,554
Long ago, sir.
379
00:36:51,554 --> 00:36:52,623
Don't you know anymore?
380
00:36:52,714 --> 00:36:55,114
You're a stubborn one.
381
00:36:55,114 --> 00:36:58,434
I went into the army because
I was recruited.
382
00:36:58,434 --> 00:37:02,746
My home is in the region of Setia,
if that means anything to you.
383
00:37:02,834 --> 00:37:06,394
A Latin. If I hadn't been a
Roman citizen,
384
00:37:06,394 --> 00:37:09,554
they wouldn't have been able
to recruit me.
385
00:37:09,554 --> 00:37:11,988
Would you have rather stayed
where your home is?
386
00:37:12,234 --> 00:37:15,834
That, no. We were already four boys.
387
00:37:15,834 --> 00:37:18,834
That was too many for the
couple of hides of land.
388
00:37:18,834 --> 00:37:23,066
Nor could we hire ourselves out
to one of the large estates,
389
00:37:23,154 --> 00:37:28,103
because they preferred to take
freedmen, who couldn't be recruited.
390
00:37:28,874 --> 00:37:31,754
And besides, they had their slaves.
391
00:37:31,754 --> 00:37:33,834
Are your brothers still on the farm?
392
00:37:33,834 --> 00:37:38,783
How should I know?
Hardly likely, sir. With the wheat prices.
393
00:37:38,994 --> 00:37:43,994
You have Sicilian wheat in Italy,
you see, that's so much cheaper.
394
00:37:43,994 --> 00:37:48,943
Already in my day, even the troops
were fed only with Sicilian wheat.
395
00:37:49,154 --> 00:37:52,114
And you yourself have looked for
land again only now?
396
00:37:52,114 --> 00:37:55,674
Yes, with my years one is not
a soldier any more.
397
00:37:55,674 --> 00:38:01,544
Yes, the land question was not solved,
and it will never be solved. Impossible.
398
00:38:03,714 --> 00:38:06,594
Your business isn't very great now
either, is it?
399
00:38:06,594 --> 00:38:11,034
We little men can't keep up.
For that one needs slaves.
400
00:38:11,034 --> 00:38:14,594
Did you hear anything about the
Democratic Clubs in your youth?
401
00:38:14,594 --> 00:38:19,514
I think so. When I was in the capital,
I voted once.
402
00:38:19,514 --> 00:38:23,754
But if it was for the Democratic Praetor,
I don't know any more.
403
00:38:23,754 --> 00:38:27,314
I got 50 sestertii - a lot of money.
404
00:38:27,314 --> 00:38:31,705
I think the Democrats were for settling
the land question?
405
00:38:31,794 --> 00:38:36,743
Really? Weren't they for giving free
grain to the unemployed?
406
00:38:37,074 --> 00:38:37,794
That too.
407
00:38:37,794 --> 00:38:41,354
But that's precisely what ruined
the price of grain.
408
00:38:41,354 --> 00:38:45,994
But it one was in the town, as you were
then, it was still good to get cheap bread?
409
00:38:45,994 --> 00:38:50,474
Yes, in the town it was necessary.
There one was unemployed.
410
00:38:50,474 --> 00:38:53,954
But for your people in Latium you think
it was a bad thing?
411
00:38:53,954 --> 00:38:56,274
There the low price of wheat
ruined everything?
412
00:38:56,274 --> 00:39:00,034
Yes. That and the many slaves.
We were bringing them in now.
413
00:39:00,034 --> 00:39:04,186
From Gaul, etc.
Difficult, eh?, politics!
414
00:39:05,234 --> 00:39:07,031
What did Caesar look like then?
415
00:39:07,154 --> 00:39:08,633
Worn out.
416
00:49:21,194 --> 00:49:24,311
Jurist Afranius Carbo.
It's a rotten habit of you young people
417
00:49:24,394 --> 00:49:29,234
to laugh when the subject of the ideals
trade has brought the world comes up.
418
00:49:29,234 --> 00:49:33,352
You're just imitating the sneers
of a few high-born idlers.
419
00:49:33,714 --> 00:49:38,026
Is heroism seen only in war?
If yes, is commerce not war?
420
00:49:38,154 --> 00:49:42,754
Words like ''peaceful trading'' may
inspire ambitious young merchants:
421
00:49:42,754 --> 00:49:46,714
they have no place in history.
Trade is never peaceful.
422
00:49:46,714 --> 00:49:51,663
Boundaries which commodities can't
cross are crossed by troops.
423
00:49:51,954 --> 00:49:56,954
Among the woolspinner's tools is not
only the loom, but also the catapult.
424
00:49:56,954 --> 00:49:59,954
And in addition, commerce still
has its own war.
425
00:49:59,954 --> 00:50:04,425
An unbloody war, yes, but nevertheless
a deadly one, I think.
426
00:50:04,794 --> 00:50:09,114
Hunger for bread kills those who
have it, and those who don't.
427
00:50:09,114 --> 00:50:13,514
And not only does hunger for bread kill,
appetite for oysters kills too.
428
00:50:13,514 --> 00:50:18,463
In spite of this, it's true trade brought
a humane touch to human relations.
429
00:50:19,754 --> 00:50:24,394
It must have been in a businessman's brain
that the first peaceful thought arose
430
00:50:24,394 --> 00:50:27,554
- the idea of the utility
of mild action.
431
00:50:27,554 --> 00:50:31,434
You understand, the idea that in an
unbloody war
432
00:50:31,434 --> 00:50:34,634
one could secure greater advantages
than in a bloody war.
433
00:50:34,634 --> 00:50:40,311
In fact, sentence of death by starvation
is somewhat milder than by sword.
434
00:50:40,714 --> 00:50:45,663
Just as a milk cow's lot is pleasanter
than a fattened swine's.
435
00:50:46,114 --> 00:50:52,474
A trader must have hit on the idea that
one can get more out of a man
than just his entrails.
436
00:50:52,474 --> 00:50:57,954
But don't forget in all this that ''Live and
let live,'' the great humane maxim,
437
00:50:57,954 --> 00:51:02,266
surely still means ''live'' for the milk
drinker, ''let live'' for the cow.
438
00:51:08,354 --> 00:51:12,434
And when you consider history,
what conclusion do you reach?
439
00:51:12,434 --> 00:51:16,314
If ideals can only be taken seriously
if blood has flowed for them,
440
00:51:16,314 --> 00:51:20,671
then ours, those of Democracy,
must be taken very seriously.
441
00:51:20,754 --> 00:51:22,794
A lot of blood flowed for them.
442
00:51:22,794 --> 00:51:27,314
Tiberius Gracchus was slain for them by
Senators' sons with chair legs,
443
00:51:27,314 --> 00:51:29,474
and 300 of ours with him.
444
00:51:29,474 --> 00:51:32,434
None of the dead showed traces
of iron weapons.
445
00:51:32,434 --> 00:51:34,709
Their corpses were thrown
into the Tiber.
446
00:51:34,834 --> 00:51:40,394
The Senatorial general Manius Aquillius
had offered a whole Province of Asia Minor
447
00:51:40,394 --> 00:51:44,234
for sale to the kings of
Pontus and Bythinia.
448
00:51:44,234 --> 00:51:48,671
The Pontine king offered more,
and the Senate ratified the sale.
449
00:51:49,154 --> 00:51:52,234
''There are three tendencies in the
Senate,'' said Gracchus.
450
00:51:52,234 --> 00:51:55,794
''The first is for the sale;
it is bribed by the King of Pontus.
451
00:51:55,794 --> 00:51:59,714
''The second is against the sale;
it is bribed by the King of Bythinia.
452
00:51:59,714 --> 00:52:03,468
''The third is silent;
it is bribed by both kings.''
453
00:52:03,594 --> 00:52:06,313
The Senate answered him
with the chair legs.
454
00:52:06,714 --> 00:52:10,753
That was in 620,
so more than a century ago.
455
00:52:11,034 --> 00:52:13,914
Thirteen years later Gaius Gracchus
insisted
456
00:52:13,914 --> 00:52:18,474
that the grain requisitioned in the
Spanish Provinces be paid for,
457
00:52:18,474 --> 00:52:22,074
that peasants be sent as colonisers
to conquered Africa,
458
00:52:22,074 --> 00:52:24,674
that Italians be accepted as citizens,
459
00:52:24,674 --> 00:52:27,234
that taxes instead of tributes be
imposed in the Provinces,
460
00:52:27,314 --> 00:52:30,554
that the State income be controlled
by businessmen.
461
00:52:30,554 --> 00:52:34,954
And a horde of Senators chased him
down the slope to the bank of the Tiber.
462
00:52:34,954 --> 00:52:39,954
He sprained a foot, and had himself
stabbed by his slave in a suburban park
463
00:52:39,954 --> 00:52:42,343
so as not to fall into their hands.
464
00:52:42,634 --> 00:52:46,434
His head was cut off and
paid for by a Senator.
465
00:52:46,434 --> 00:52:52,191
21 years passed, in which the Italian
peasant and the Roman artisan
466
00:52:52,314 --> 00:52:56,234
beat the slave bands of Sicily,
Jugurtha's Numidian troops,
467
00:52:56,234 --> 00:52:58,145
the Cimbrians and the Teutons.
468
00:52:58,234 --> 00:53:00,674
And one December day in 654
469
00:53:00,674 --> 00:53:02,954
the Democrats were driven together
into the Market,
470
00:53:02,954 --> 00:53:07,554
and then up to the Capitol, where their
water was cut off so they had to surrender.
471
00:53:07,554 --> 00:53:11,754
They were cooped up in the town hall,
young noblemen clambered onto the roof,
472
00:53:11,754 --> 00:53:15,793
took off the tiles, and smashed
the prisoners' heads with them.
473
00:53:16,034 --> 00:53:19,514
Then the Italian peasant and the Roman
artisan conquered
474
00:53:19,514 --> 00:53:23,994
conquered half Asia and Egypt as well,
and it was time for a new blood-letting.
475
00:53:23,994 --> 00:53:27,782
Sulla undertook it, and this time
the work was thorough:
476
00:53:27,874 --> 00:53:32,994
4000 of ours, counting modestly
- that is, counting only the wealthy,
477
00:53:33,154 --> 00:53:35,349
only those who belonged
to the City.
478
00:53:35,474 --> 00:53:39,513
I'm not speaking of butcheries like after
the battle at Porta Collina,
479
00:53:39,594 --> 00:53:43,034
where 3000 prisoners were led to the
farmhouse in the Campus Martius
480
00:53:43,034 --> 00:53:48,586
and slaughtered to the last man,
so that in the nearby Temple of Bellona,
481
00:53:48,714 --> 00:53:51,394
where Sulla was just then holding a
sitting of the Senate,
482
00:53:51,394 --> 00:53:55,554
the clanking of weapons and groans of
the dying could be heard clearly.
483
00:53:55,554 --> 00:54:00,503
And the affair was not at an end,
neither the agitation nor its throttling.
484
00:54:00,914 --> 00:54:03,587
Just eight years before Catilina's
rebellion,
485
00:54:03,954 --> 00:54:09,233
the Democratic general Sertorius was
cut down by Senators as he was eating.
486
00:54:09,514 --> 00:54:13,393
Two held his arms, and one
struck his sword through his throat.
487
00:54:14,354 --> 00:54:18,034
All that had passed, but none of it
forgotten,
488
00:54:18,034 --> 00:54:21,634
when Caius Julius again raised
the Democratic banners.
489
00:54:21,634 --> 00:54:25,514
Every paving stone of Rome was
drenched with the blood of the people.
490
00:54:25,514 --> 00:54:29,666
My father could still show me the place
where they'd chased Caius Gracchus.
491
00:54:29,914 --> 00:54:33,304
Two cypresses stood there.
I can still see them in front of me.
492
00:54:33,394 --> 00:54:39,105
We've forgotten we're plebians.
You are, Spicer is, and I am.
493
00:54:39,514 --> 00:54:42,074
Don't say it doesn't matter
any more today.
494
00:54:42,074 --> 00:54:45,874
Precisely that is what was achieved:
that it doesn't matter any more today.
495
00:54:45,874 --> 00:54:47,634
That's Caesar for you.
496
00:54:47,634 --> 00:54:50,234
Compared to that, what are the couple
of old-style battles,
497
00:54:50,234 --> 00:54:55,183
the couple of shaky contracts with a couple
of native tribes he may have made!
498
00:54:55,354 --> 00:54:57,954
The City was a creation of the Gracchi.
499
00:54:57,954 --> 00:55:02,954
It was they who handed over to trade
the taxes and tolls of the two Asias.
500
00:55:02,954 --> 00:55:06,514
It was the ideas of the Gracchi that
Caius Julius took up.
501
00:55:06,514 --> 00:55:08,470
Their fruit was: Imperium.
502
00:55:33,554 --> 00:55:36,194
Vastius Alder, writer.
Yet that's how everything was done.
503
00:55:36,194 --> 00:55:37,674
At the appropriate time,
504
00:55:37,674 --> 00:55:40,554
when investigations of embezzled
money threatened,
505
00:55:40,554 --> 00:55:44,024
one always repeated the threat of the
foul air from below,
506
00:55:44,154 --> 00:55:49,103
mumbled something about revolution,
made a vague gesture in the direction
of the suburbs.
507
00:55:49,874 --> 00:55:52,946
The police understood
and became more tactful.
508
00:55:53,514 --> 00:55:58,463
A passing reference to the hungry
masses (in terse military prose )
509
00:55:58,594 --> 00:56:01,028
and the Senate cheered again.
510
00:56:01,914 --> 00:56:04,906
One was naturally against this
stinking tide oneself.
511
00:56:05,194 --> 00:56:09,153
One wiped off with disgust the dirt
splashed on one's toga.
512
00:56:10,154 --> 00:56:14,714
One knew they'd use their ''liberation''
513
00:56:14,714 --> 00:56:19,185
to get their crippled bastards
on the Vestal Virgins' laps,
514
00:56:19,834 --> 00:56:24,783
to grow radishes instead of
chrysanthemums in the greenhouses,
515
00:56:25,234 --> 00:56:30,183
to seal the holes in their barracks with
priceless Greek canvases,
516
00:56:30,834 --> 00:56:32,745
to shit on grammar
517
00:56:32,834 --> 00:56:37,783
- always excused by a couple of literati
due to neglected education.
518
00:56:39,154 --> 00:56:43,067
One knew all that -
one had Greek culture.
519
00:56:43,634 --> 00:56:46,910
One knew, but had to make politics.
520
00:56:47,194 --> 00:56:51,631
One made politics till finally one got the
tidal wave into the curia,
521
00:56:52,194 --> 00:56:54,583
or at least its foam -
522
00:56:55,754 --> 00:57:00,623
No hungry peasants, of course,
just their tormentors, the usurers.
523
00:57:00,874 --> 00:57:04,708
No bankrupt artisans of course,
just the mortgage-holders.
524
00:57:05,034 --> 00:57:08,474
No, the gentleman didn't forget
''misery,''
525
00:57:08,474 --> 00:57:12,990
the great Democrat remembered
''the despair of the pauperized.''
526
00:57:13,274 --> 00:57:16,664
What else could he have blackmailed
the pauperized with?
527
00:57:16,914 --> 00:57:20,509
The Senate was too small.
It had to be enlarged.
528
00:57:21,034 --> 00:57:26,904
The privilged robbers were too few.
They had to be supplemented by
unprivileged robbers.
529
00:57:28,634 --> 00:57:32,034
Under the dictator's threatening eye,
530
00:57:32,034 --> 00:57:37,984
those their police brought the stolen
goods to shook hands with those
who'd stolen them.
531
00:57:40,114 --> 00:57:45,063
What of the leprosy one had promised
to suppress, exclude, decimate,
532
00:57:46,154 --> 00:57:49,032
for so many sealed envelopes?
533
00:57:50,434 --> 00:57:54,347
Now, wasn't it somewhat decimated
when it streamed into the curia?
534
00:57:54,554 --> 00:57:57,671
Wasn't it just a small part of
all the leprosy?
535
00:57:59,034 --> 00:58:03,391
It was surely only the part of the
leprosy that could jingle with money.
536
00:58:03,594 --> 00:58:05,232
A very small part.
537
00:58:05,554 --> 00:58:08,466
But strong. And loud.
538
00:58:08,954 --> 00:58:11,104
One must shout if one wants to bargain.
539
00:58:11,394 --> 00:58:15,433
Look at the Senate:
a market hall.
540
01:08:43,834 --> 01:08:46,302
The Catlina affair put C on top.
541
01:08:46,754 --> 01:08:51,032
It's true it brought the Democrat
''Party'' to the dogs,
542
01:08:51,314 --> 01:08:54,226
but equally it brought him
on top in the Party.
543
01:08:55,154 --> 01:08:57,145
The defeat was huge,
544
01:08:57,394 --> 01:09:02,070
but if they still wanted something from
the defeated, they had to go to him.
545
01:09:02,154 --> 01:09:04,588
He even took the kicks.
546
01:09:05,674 --> 01:09:08,950
The Democratic cause had really gone
to the dogs.
547
01:09:09,234 --> 01:09:12,914
The Senate had accepted that repression
of the City would cost something:
548
01:09:12,914 --> 01:09:17,914
wheat for the unemployed ate up an
eighth of the state's budget each year,
549
01:09:17,914 --> 01:09:21,463
25 million sestertii.
550
01:09:21,874 --> 01:09:26,152
But the money wasn't thrown away,
not to mention it wasn't its own.
551
01:09:26,314 --> 01:09:31,263
Increase in state income from Asiatic
conquests more than doubled it.
552
01:09:33,354 --> 01:09:37,666
The City's share had considerably
decreased.
553
01:09:39,114 --> 01:09:41,514
And ''great'' Pompey now had to
consider
554
01:09:41,514 --> 01:09:45,985
if he could really ask the Senate
for more than a triumph.
555
01:09:46,434 --> 01:09:50,954
The Democratic organizations, on which
he could have depended in autumn,
556
01:09:50,954 --> 01:09:52,945
were in ruins.
557
01:09:54,674 --> 01:09:57,354
The City had betrayed the little man
558
01:09:57,354 --> 01:10:01,034
according to all the rules of the art,
except the rule that prescribes
559
01:10:01,034 --> 01:10:04,071
that the victim shall not notice
anything.
560
01:10:04,434 --> 01:10:10,031
After brutal, definitive extermination
of the Catilinians,
561
01:10:10,994 --> 01:10:15,192
a change of mood had occurred
in the broad masses.
562
01:10:16,794 --> 01:10:21,743
The victors of Pistoria told of the
bravery of the desperate insurgents,
563
01:10:22,194 --> 01:10:25,903
in whose packs not a crust of
bread had been found.
564
01:10:26,394 --> 01:10:30,706
They told it in run-down, fungus-ridden
tenement houses,
565
01:10:31,674 --> 01:10:34,507
and to people who were in the hands of
the banks
566
01:10:34,754 --> 01:10:37,985
or else possessed nothing at all.
567
01:10:38,714 --> 01:10:42,314
And the insurrection had beenopposed
by the Democrat Cicero,
568
01:10:42,314 --> 01:10:47,263
and for this honor had ''great'' Pompey
contended with him.
569
01:10:47,714 --> 01:10:50,023
Pompey had become unpopular.
570
01:10:51,834 --> 01:10:56,225
But the Senate had the power.
The capital's police were doubled;
571
01:10:56,394 --> 01:11:00,594
its files were loaded with
compromising documents.
572
01:11:00,594 --> 01:11:03,554
The street clubs were completely
dissolved,
573
01:11:03,554 --> 01:11:05,988
even the gladiators' teams
were dissolved.
574
01:11:07,554 --> 01:11:12,954
Everywhere in Italy the Senate could
muster fresh, trustworthy legions
575
01:11:12,954 --> 01:11:15,991
from the peasantry, whenever it
seemed necessary.
576
01:11:16,834 --> 01:11:21,474
The peasants had no interest in a
solution to the land question
577
01:11:21,474 --> 01:11:27,470
which entailed dumping the town's
unemployed on their necks as competition.
578
01:11:27,674 --> 01:11:31,952
As if the insane slave imports of this
Pompey hadn't been enough already!
579
01:11:39,714 --> 01:11:43,474
And the City was as bankrupt
as it could be.
580
01:11:43,474 --> 01:11:47,592
The City longed more than ever
for Pompey.
581
01:11:47,674 --> 01:11:49,949
It urgently needed a ''strong man.''
582
01:11:50,714 --> 01:11:53,069
It expected real energy from him.
583
01:11:53,314 --> 01:11:55,782
The forum resounded with his fame.
584
01:11:56,634 --> 01:12:01,583
His genius is proven, said the bankers,
he showed it in Asia.
585
01:12:02,234 --> 01:12:07,183
If he put an end to Mithridates,
why shouldn't he end our Cato?
586
01:12:08,234 --> 01:12:11,146
The man has a reputation to lose.
587
01:12:11,674 --> 01:12:15,354
Naturally C was waiting for Pompey.
588
01:12:15,354 --> 01:12:18,154
If Pompey came with legions,
589
01:12:18,154 --> 01:12:22,227
there'd be police inquiries into the
January events,
590
01:12:22,714 --> 01:12:24,794
which would have to start at once,
591
01:12:24,794 --> 01:12:28,184
if he resigned his office with the police,
in the autumn.
592
01:12:28,994 --> 01:12:33,385
The moment he'd cease to be the judge,
he'd be the criminal.
593
01:12:33,994 --> 01:12:37,270
So he was watching out for the
dictator Pompey.
594
01:12:37,714 --> 01:12:40,714
But the great Pompey shrouded
himself in silence.
595
01:12:40,714 --> 01:12:46,550
He was winding up his Asian affairs,
and seemed to have no thought of politics.
596
01:12:48,274 --> 01:12:52,392
He was still making contracts with the
City for taxes and toll farming.
597
01:12:52,554 --> 01:12:57,184
Of course, they required sanction
from the Senate, but
598
01:12:57,434 --> 01:12:59,994
he would certainly come
with his legions
599
01:12:59,994 --> 01:13:05,512
and contracts which victorious legions
desired couldn't be bad.
600
01:13:08,914 --> 01:13:12,384
The City displayed a cheerful,
trusting air.
601
01:13:12,554 --> 01:13:17,503
But prices for Asiatic stocks were
remarkably low.
602
01:13:18,154 --> 01:13:22,554
If you want to know the City's true
views on war reports,
603
01:13:22,554 --> 01:13:24,988
you have to read its
stockmarket reports.
604
01:13:25,394 --> 01:13:30,343
Pompey came not with his legions,
but without them.
605
01:13:31,114 --> 01:13:35,594
At the start of year 92, no one would
have thought this possible
606
01:13:35,594 --> 01:13:38,794
of the great conqueror of the two Asias.
607
01:13:38,794 --> 01:13:43,794
Crassus, in mortal dispute with Pompey
since their joint consulate,
608
01:13:43,794 --> 01:13:46,874
had already fled before him to
Macedonia in summer.
609
01:13:46,874 --> 01:13:51,514
Even the Senate expected all sorts of
comings and goings from Pompey,
610
01:13:51,514 --> 01:13:54,354
who had landed at Brindisium
with a giant fleet,
611
01:13:54,354 --> 01:13:57,710
when Crassus reappeared
on the Forum.
612
01:13:58,634 --> 01:14:02,912
When C saw him, he knew Pompey
would come without troops.
613
01:14:03,434 --> 01:14:05,709
Crassus had his connections.
614
01:14:07,434 --> 01:14:10,234
C sent for that same afternoon.
615
01:14:10,234 --> 01:14:12,874
He was standing by a statue of Minerva,
616
01:14:12,874 --> 01:14:15,634
and was giving a dozen slaves
orders to pack.
617
01:14:15,634 --> 01:14:16,749
He said,
618
01:14:18,034 --> 01:14:22,354
''Pompey will come back as a private
individual. Crassus is back again.
619
01:14:22,354 --> 01:14:25,426
''I'm thinking of travelling off
to my Province.''
620
01:14:27,474 --> 01:14:32,423
C left Rome in such haste that he didn't
even seek the Senate's instructions
621
01:14:32,554 --> 01:14:36,991
about his troops' strength,
equipment or pay.
622
01:14:37,314 --> 01:14:43,708
I believe the fame of his ''magically fast
journey'' was spread by his many creditors.
623
01:14:44,234 --> 01:14:49,183
But he didn't leave Rome without seeking
the instructions of the Pulcher group.
624
01:14:50,274 --> 01:14:52,434
It was in charge of the settlement
625
01:14:52,434 --> 01:14:56,712
of the Etrurian iron mines' war supplies
business with Pompey's army.
626
01:14:57,794 --> 01:15:02,265
These mines, Italy's largest,
were pretty much exhausted.
627
01:15:03,274 --> 01:15:06,434
C's administration of Spain was in fact
the first to succeed
628
01:15:06,434 --> 01:15:10,985
according to reasonable - that is,
businesslike - points of view.
629
01:15:11,674 --> 01:15:16,623
From the historians you can't readily
apprehend that.
630
01:15:17,234 --> 01:15:20,754
For certain reasons, mainly so that
C could celebrate a triumph,
631
01:15:20,754 --> 01:15:24,110
he had to present the whole
thing as a war.
632
01:15:24,794 --> 01:15:27,834
They spoke of a war against mountain
people who carried out
633
01:15:27,834 --> 01:15:31,110
thieving raids in the valleys.
634
01:15:31,634 --> 01:15:37,345
There was talk of a population that left
its towns to flee into the mountains
635
01:15:37,754 --> 01:15:40,348
and which had to be
brought back.
636
01:15:41,194 --> 01:15:44,903
That's the usual style of governors'
reports.
637
01:15:45,674 --> 01:15:47,983
C's procedure was far more
interesting.
638
01:15:48,514 --> 01:15:50,954
The main point, the really new thing,
639
01:15:50,954 --> 01:15:54,114
was that he treated Spanish
businessmen not only as Spaniards,
640
01:15:54,114 --> 01:15:56,708
but also as businessmen.
641
01:15:57,234 --> 01:16:01,830
He supported them, where he could,
even against their own countrymen.
642
01:16:02,074 --> 01:16:07,023
In the first place, pacification of Spain
had to be accomplished.
643
01:16:07,434 --> 01:16:11,313
To this end no means should be
shunned, not even the most powerful.
644
01:16:11,874 --> 01:16:15,674
His most famous civilizing measure
645
01:16:15,674 --> 01:16:21,226
consisted of resettlement of the Lusitanian
mountain population in the river valleys.
646
01:16:21,634 --> 01:16:24,594
The Lusitanian merchants complained
bitterly
647
01:16:24,594 --> 01:16:29,543
about the absolute lack of labor power
in the silver, copper and iron mines.
648
01:16:30,234 --> 01:16:32,554
The mountain inhabitants preferred
649
01:16:32,554 --> 01:16:37,503
contemplative pastoral life in the
highlands to work in the mines.
650
01:16:38,634 --> 01:16:41,910
The industrialists pointed out quite
rightly
651
01:16:41,994 --> 01:16:46,634
that on these inaccessible plateaus
they were very successfully
652
01:16:46,634 --> 01:16:49,592
avoiding the clutches of
the tax officials.
653
01:16:50,594 --> 01:16:53,514
For decades Roman governors had
taken no notice
654
01:16:53,514 --> 01:16:58,514
of the complaints of domestic
commerce, and hadn't taken sides
655
01:16:58,514 --> 01:17:01,594
in the struggle of the Lusitanian
bourgeoisie
656
01:17:01,594 --> 01:17:05,109
with the stubborn pastoral
population.
657
01:17:05,994 --> 01:17:10,943
The mountain people stood on a very
low rung of civilization.
658
01:17:11,914 --> 01:17:14,114
There were scarcely any slaves.
659
01:17:14,114 --> 01:17:16,754
One was not in a position, without
foreign help,
660
01:17:16,754 --> 01:17:20,394
to exploit the important ore deposits,
661
01:17:20,394 --> 01:17:22,794
partly because of primitive machinery,
662
01:17:22,794 --> 01:17:25,991
partly because of lack of suitable
labor power.
663
01:17:27,354 --> 01:17:32,303
However Roman troops invaded only
when, after C's arrival,
664
01:17:33,234 --> 01:17:38,183
it became known that in these regions
even human sacrifices were offered.
665
01:17:40,474 --> 01:17:43,714
Liquidation of such barbarous
conditions
666
01:17:43,714 --> 01:17:47,229
called for speedy and merciless
intervention.
667
01:17:47,834 --> 01:17:52,783
It may lead to loss of human life,
but will be worth it in the end.
668
01:17:53,194 --> 01:17:57,274
Those Roman cohorts who, in the
absence of any roads,
669
01:17:57,274 --> 01:18:00,674
thought they were following
a dried up river bed
670
01:18:00,674 --> 01:18:05,074
and marched into an arm of the sea
and got washed away by rising tide
671
01:18:05,074 --> 01:18:11,154
with all war equipment and baggage,
didn't lose their lives in vain.
672
01:18:11,154 --> 01:18:16,751
On the same slopes stand today villas
of native and Roman merchants.
673
01:18:17,834 --> 01:18:21,394
And the mountain valleys which once
were filled with
674
01:18:21,394 --> 01:18:24,386
the noise of weapons and moans
of the wounded,
675
01:18:24,634 --> 01:18:29,154
resound today again with peaceful
hammering in the ore quarries
676
01:18:29,154 --> 01:18:31,270
and the merry cries of the slaves.
677
01:18:31,554 --> 01:18:34,114
The short war did not pass
without blood,
678
01:18:34,394 --> 01:18:37,034
and not all of C's operations
were fortunate.
679
01:18:37,034 --> 01:18:39,834
But he was not unloved
by the soldiers.
680
01:18:39,834 --> 01:18:42,906
The gratuities he handed out
were decent.
681
01:18:43,114 --> 01:18:46,674
And he could with good conscience
demand a triumph in Rome,
682
01:18:46,674 --> 01:18:51,514
and to make up the required 5000
enemy killed, he didn't,
683
01:18:51,514 --> 01:18:57,350
like certain other generals, have to count
all the civilians who'd lost their lives.
684
01:18:58,794 --> 01:19:03,743
Roman cohorts fought in this war
shoulder to shoulder with native ones.
685
01:19:04,234 --> 01:19:07,510
A third of the troops were
Lusitanians.
686
01:19:08,074 --> 01:19:12,074
Relations of the Roman tax farmers,
and thereby of the City,
687
01:19:12,074 --> 01:19:16,674
with the native bourgeoisie were
the most cordial imaginable.
688
01:19:16,674 --> 01:19:20,354
With help from the Pulcher group,
C succeeded in obtaining
689
01:19:20,354 --> 01:19:24,554
tax rebates for his Province by proving
that the country had suffered
690
01:19:24,554 --> 01:19:27,591
through his war operations.
691
01:19:27,754 --> 01:19:30,074
Before the auction of the
tax concessions
692
01:19:30,074 --> 01:19:35,074
he arranged a settlement between various
competitors and the Pulcher group,
693
01:19:35,074 --> 01:19:38,191
so that the usual outbidding
was prevented.
694
01:19:40,314 --> 01:19:43,594
He left the mines in the hands of
native businesses,
695
01:19:43,594 --> 01:19:47,394
and obtained for the Lusitanians a
moratorium on their debts.
696
01:19:47,394 --> 01:19:51,074
He found a bearable mode by which the
native industry
697
01:19:51,074 --> 01:19:56,074
could continue working, and pay its
debts through full employment
698
01:19:56,074 --> 01:19:59,350
of the country's labor power.
699
01:20:00,234 --> 01:20:03,670
Two thirds of the output of the mines
currently went to the City.
700
01:20:05,154 --> 01:20:09,113
The campaign in the mountains had
yielded a rich booty in slaves.
701
01:20:09,594 --> 01:20:12,188
But naturally that didn't settle
the matter.
702
01:20:12,554 --> 01:20:16,834
The former shepherds, used to the lazy
life in the highlands,
703
01:20:16,834 --> 01:20:21,514
left the towns again and again,
and had to be brought back by force.
704
01:20:21,514 --> 01:20:23,709
C did what he could.
705
01:20:24,274 --> 01:20:26,114
His success was epoch-making,
706
01:20:26,114 --> 01:20:31,268
and contributed more than anything
else to making the new system popular.
707
01:20:31,354 --> 01:20:36,874
Despite lowered tax assessments, the
Empire's income was constantly increasing,
708
01:20:36,874 --> 01:20:39,194
and the City had every reason
to be satisfied.
709
01:20:39,194 --> 01:20:41,874
It got ore - as much
as it wanted.
710
01:20:41,874 --> 01:20:46,474
Today it employs more than 40,000
slaves in the mines
711
01:20:46,474 --> 01:20:51,946
and derives 45 million sestertii a year
from the silver mines.
712
01:20:52,074 --> 01:20:57,023
But C's share from pacification of the
Province was also satisfactory.
713
01:20:58,234 --> 01:21:03,234
The historians disagree about what
he actually earned.
714
01:21:03,234 --> 01:21:08,954
Brandus believes he only took money at
all because he needed tangible proof
715
01:21:08,954 --> 01:21:14,392
of the Spaniards' enthusiastic gratitute
for his unselfishness.
716
01:21:14,754 --> 01:21:20,147
He emphasies that C accepted voluntary
donations exclusively.
717
01:21:21,114 --> 01:21:26,791
Nepos believes people at the head of
troops are too proud to beg,
718
01:21:27,554 --> 01:21:30,546
and assumed he ordered
the donations.
719
01:21:30,914 --> 01:21:36,864
Some say he took money from his
enemies; others, from his allies.
720
01:21:37,114 --> 01:21:42,666
Some, it consisted of tributes;
others, of shares in the silver mines.
721
01:21:43,274 --> 01:21:47,594
Some, he was paid in Spain;
others, in Rome.
722
01:21:47,594 --> 01:21:49,152
All of them are right.
723
01:21:49,354 --> 01:21:53,791
As everyone knows, C could do
several things at once.
724
01:21:54,114 --> 01:21:59,063
He made about 35 million
sestertii in a single year.
725
01:22:00,234 --> 01:22:03,194
When he came back,
another man came back.
726
01:22:03,194 --> 01:22:05,994
He'd shown what was
hidden inside him.
727
01:22:05,994 --> 01:22:09,384
He'd also shown what was hidden
in a Province.
728
01:22:09,634 --> 01:22:12,034
And his historic saying
729
01:22:12,034 --> 01:22:16,789
that he'd rather be first in Spain than
second in Rome was justified.
730
01:22:16,874 --> 01:22:20,394
My confidence in him had proved
well-founded.
731
01:22:20,394 --> 01:22:22,624
Our small bank was
no small bank anymore.
732
01:22:23,794 --> 01:22:27,104
Open your fiery pit, o Hell.
733
01:22:35,554 --> 01:22:40,503
Wreck, ruin, engulf, shatter
with sudden force
734
01:22:44,954 --> 01:22:49,470
the false betrayer,
the murderous blood!
68377
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