Stanowisko senatu wobec rywalizacji Pompejusza z Cezarem (1 XII 50 r. - 11 I 49 r. p.n.e.)

Abstract

The last forty days before the outbreak of the civil war between Pompey and Caesar, i.e. the period from December 1, 50 BC to January 11, 49 BC was, for several reasons, an extremely interesting moment in the history of the Roman Republic. For Pompey it was the last chance to enforce, with the help of the consuls that were his clients and other civil servants that began their term on January 1,49 BC, a policy that would suit his purposes. This is why immediately after December I, 50 BC, and especially in January 49 BC, we observe a growing activity of the two potentates and of their supporters, which signalised the beginning of the final stage of their rivalry. The most important events related to that rivalry took place in the senate which had to take some vital decisions on the Gallic question which was a subject the controversy between Pompey and Caesar. The senate, therefore, became an object of a refined, though sometimes very brutal, pressure from both sides and from the politicians supporting either of the two sides. Another result of this course of events was, apart from the above mentioned animation, an intensification of the political struggle in Rome, which led to the Senate changing their mind radically during those forty days. In order to trace the development of that political struggle, and the various tendencies that accompanied it, the author of the present article discusses the situation in the senate after the December 1, 50 BC debate and the policy adopted by Pompey and Caesar at that time in relation to the senate. The author pays particular attention to such decisive moments as the senate’s activity in the first days of January 49 BC, and particularly the debates that took place on the first and the seventh day of that month. Since it during those debates that the senate changed radically their attitude to the Gallic question, the author devotes a lot of space to Pompey’s and Caesar’s actions related to that fact, and to the activity of their most zealous supporters in relation to particular senators and to the senate as a whole. That discussion is rounded up by a presentation of the political situation in Rome, mainly as regards the situation in the senate, in the period from January 8 to January II, 49 BC, and of the effect that it had on the further development of events.