On September 28, 61 BCE, Pompey celebrates his third triumph with unprecedented magnificence, including a pearl portrait bust. Approaching 45 but styling himself as eternally youthful, he begins constructing a massive permanent theater on the Campus Martius, breaking with republican tradition.

The Senate, led by Cato and backed by Crassus, blocks ratification of Pompey’s eastern settlement, which would have given his veterans land. Humiliated, Pompey attempts to ally with Cato through marriage, but Cato publicly refuses, denouncing it as a bribe attempted through a young woman’s bedroom. Pompey is left demoralized and isolated.

Caesar returns from successful campaigns in Spain with a triumph awarded but faces a choice: Celebrate the triumph, thus remaining “under arms” and unable to enter Rome, or stand for the consulship. When Cato filibusters to prevent him standing for election by proxy, Caesar abandons the triumph and enters Rome. With Pompey’s backing and his own popularity, Caesar wins the consulship for 59 BCE. Cato ensures his son-in-law, Marcus Bibulus, wins second place through bribery and then maneuvers to deny Caesar a meaningful provincial command—the custom for outgoing consuls. Instead, the Senate votes to assign Caesar to Italy, effectively relegating him to “polic[ing] Italian sheepfolds” (218).

When Caesar presents a land bill for Pompey’s veterans, Cato filibusters until Caesar has him arrested. Senators walk out in solidarity, forcing Caesar’s to backtrack. Caesar then takes the bill directly to the people. When Crassus publicly joins Pompey in supporting it, Cato realizes that his enemies control Rome: Caesar has formed an alliance with both Pompey and Crassus, the triumvirate.

On voting day, Bibulus announces bad omens to suspend the vote. Caesar’s supporters dump excrement on Bibulus and beat his lictors. The bill passes, and Caesar forces the Senate to swear to uphold the legislation. Only Metellus Celer and Cato hold out, and then only until Cicero persuades them to yield.

Caesar secures governorships of Illyricum and Gallia Togata. After Metellus Celer dies, Caesar adds Transalpine Gaul, bringing his total authorized command to four legions. His five-year command offers vast opportunities for conquest. Lucullus, after attempting opposition, breaks down and begs Caesar for mercy. Bibulus dares Caesar to cut his throat, while Cato courts similar martyrdom in the Forum. Both save face by proving their courage while implicitly impugning the legitimacy of the triumvirate. When Caesar solidifies his alliance by marrying his daughter, Julia, to Pompey, Cato denounces him as a “pimp.” Pompey and Crassus grow unpopular. Pompey, besotted with Julia, withdraws to the countryside, where he is mocked for excessive conjugal devotion. The alliance appears fragile.

In December 59 BCE, Clodius becomes tribune after Caesar arranges his adoption into a plebeian family. Clodius immediately passes legislation providing free grain and restoring the banned collegia—neighborhood clubs that he reorganizes as private street gangs headquartered at the temple of Castor. When Clodius’s gangs violently disrupt the trial of an ally of Caesar’s, Cicero realizes his vulnerability. Sure enough, Clodius proposes a bill declaring exile for anyone who executes citizens without trial, clearly targeting Cicero. Despite Cicero’s desperate appeals, Caesar, Pompey, and the consuls remain silent or obstructive. Hortensius advises Cicero to flee. In March 58 BCE, Cicero escapes Rome at night. Clodius’s mobs destroy Cicero’s Palatine mansion and erect a temple to Liberty on the site.

Meanwhile, Caesar departs for Gaul, where the Helvetians, an Alpine people, are massing on the border, hoping to travel west. He blocks their passage through Roman territory and then shadows their wagon train of 360,000 people westward. After defeating them twice, he orders them home. Though Caesar has violated his own laws by attacking tribes outside Roman territory, citizens celebrate his victory as a defense against “barbarian” invasion; Gauls were responsible for the one and only invasion of Gaul itself three centuries prior, so there is little sympathy for them.

Caesar next provokes and defeats German tribes, driving them across the Rhine and wintering his legions deep in free Gaul. Gallic tribes, recognizing Roman intentions to conquer all Gaul, form a coalition. In spring 57 BCE, Caesar marches north with eight legions—double his authorized force—into the territory of the Belgae. He systematically defeats the northern tribes and then receives the submission of western tribes under his legate Publius Crassus. Rome awards Caesar an unprecedented 15 days of thanksgiving.

In August 57 BCE, after touring Italy to drum up support and securing Caesar’s reluctant approval, Pompey orchestrates a Senate vote and public assembly for Cicero’s recall; he hopes Cicero will prove a counterweight to Clodius. An incoming tribune, Titus Annius Milo, organizes gangs composed of gladiators and other “well-trained heavies,” which he uses to protect the vote on Cicero’s return from Clodius’s disruption. Cicero returns triumphantly but immediately proposes giving Pompey control of Rome’s corn supply as repayment, prompting Clodius to accuse both of demagoguery. When Cicero gains approval to restore his house, Clodius’s gangs attack the worksite. Street battles between Clodius and Milo intensify as both bring charges against one another for political violence. In February 56 BCE, when Clodius prosecutes Milo, Clodius’s gangs riot as Pompey attempts to speak, chanting support for Crassus over Pompey for an eastern command and shutting down the trial.

Pompey tells Cicero that Crassus orchestrated the riot and is plotting his murder. However, when the Senate officially condemns the riot, it blames Pompey rather than Clodius. Pompey’s ambitions for a second eastern command and senatorial respect seem dead, and his downfall cheers Caesar’s enemies, who hope he can be toppled as well. To that end, Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, a wealthy aristocrat and brother-in-law of Cato, announces his candidacy for consul with a platform of ending Caesar’s command and replacing him in Gaul. The establishment rallies behind him; tradition seems poised to defeat the “over-reachers” and preserve the Republic.