"As you are all aware, Conscript Fathers," Lepidus said to an attentive Senate, "there is considerable unrest to the north of Rome. It is my opinion-and the opinions of many others!-that most of this unrest stems out of our late lamented Dictator's fixation upon punishing the communities of Etruria and Umbria by stripping from them almost every last iugerum of town land. That the House was not always in favor of the Dictator's measures, the House clearly showed when it opposed the Dictator's wish to proscribe every citizen in the towns of Arretium and Volaterrae. And it is to our credit that we did manage to dissuade the Dictator from doing this, even though the incident occurred when he was at the height of his power. Well, do not think that my new law has anything good to offer Arretium and Volaterrae! They actively supported Carbo, which means they will get nothing from me. No, the communities I am concerned about were at most involuntary hosts to Carbo's legions. I speak about places like Spoletium and Clusium, at the moment seething with resentment against Rome because they have lost their town lands, yet were never traitorous! Just the hapless victims of civil war, in the path of someone's army."
Lepidus paused to look along the tiers on both sides of the Curia Hostilia, and was satisfied at what his eyes saw. A little more feeling in his voice, he continued.
"Any place which actively supported Carbo is not at issue here, and the lands of these traitors are more than enough to settle Sulla's soldiers upon. I must emphasize that. With very few exceptions, Italy is now Roman to the core, its citizens enfranchised and distributed across the full gamut of the thirty-five tribes. Yet many of the districts of Etruria and Umbria in particular are still being treated like rebellious old-style Allies, for during those times it was always Roman practice to confiscate a district's public lands. But how can Rome usurp the lands of proper, legal Romans? It is a contradiction! And we, Conscript Fathers of Rome's senior governing body, cannot continue to condone such practices. If we do, there will be yet another rebellion in Etruria and Umbria-and Rome cannot afford to wage another war at home when she is so pressed abroad! At the moment we have to find the money to support fourteen legions in the field against Quintus Sertorius. And obviously this is where our precious money must go. My law to give back their lands to places like Clusium and Tuder will calm the people of Etruria and Umbria before it is too late."
The Senate listened, though Catulus spoke out strongly against the measure and was followed by the most pro-Sullan and conservative elements, as Lepidus had expected.
"This is the thin end of the wedge!" cried Catulus angrily. "Marcus Aemilius Lepidus intends to pull down our newly formed constitution a piece at a time by starting with measures he knows will appeal to this House! But I say it cannot be allowed to happen! Every measure he succeeds in having sent to the People with a senatus consultant attached will embolden him to go further!"
But when neither Cethegus nor Philippus came out in support of Catulus, Lepidus felt he was going to win. Odd perhaps that they had not supported Catulus; yet why question such a gift? He therefore went ahead with another measure in the House before he had succeeded in obtaining a senatus consultum of approval for his bill to give back the sequestrated lands.
“It is the duty of this House to remove our late lamented Dictator's embargo upon the sale of public grain at a price below that levied by the private grain merchants," he said firmly, and with the doors of the Curia Hostilia opened wide so that those who listened outside could hear. “Conscript Fathers, I am a sane, decent man! I am not a demagogue. As senior consul I have no need to woo our poorest citizens. My political career is at its zenith-I am not a man on the rise. I can afford to pay whatever the private grain merchants ask for their wheat. Nor do I mean to imply that our late lamented Dictator was wrong when he fixed the price of public grain to the price asked by the private grain merchants. I think our late lamented Dictator did not realize the consequences, is all. For what in actual fact has happened? The private grain merchants have raised their prices because there is now no governmental policy to oblige them to keep their prices down! After all, Conscript Fathers, what businessman can resist the prospect of greater profits? Do kindness and humanity dictate his actions? Of course not! He's in business to make a profit for himself and his shareholders, and mostly he is too myopic to see that when he raises the price of his product beyond the capacity of his largest market to pay for it, he begins to erode his whole profit basis.
"I therefore ask you, members of this House, to give my lex Aemilia Lepida frumentaria your official stamp of approval, enabling me to put it before the People for ratification. I will go back to our old, tried-and-true method, which is to have the State offer public grain to the populace for the fixed price of ten sesterces the modius. In years of plenty that price still enables the State to make a good profit, and as years of plenty outnumber years of scarcity, in the long run the State cannot suffer financially."
Again the junior consul Catulus spoke in opposition. But this time support for him was minimal; both Cethegus and Philippus were in unequivocal favor of Lepidus's measure. It therefore got its senatus consultum at the same session as Lepidus brought it up. Lepidus was free to promulgate his law in the Popular Assembly, and did. His reputation rose to new heights, and when he appeared in public he was cheered.
But his lex agraria concerning the sequestrated lands was a different matter; it lingered in the House, and though he put it to the vote at every meeting, he continued to fail to secure enough votes to obtain a senatus consultum-which meant that under Sulla's constitution he could not take it to an Assembly.
"But I am not giving up," he said to Brutus over dinner at Brutus's house.
He ate at Brutus's house regularly, for in truth he found his own house unbearably empty these days. At the time the proscriptions had begun, he, like most of Rome's upper classes, had very much feared he would be proscribed; he had remained in Rome during the years of Marius, Cinna and Carbo-and he was married to the daughter of Saturninus, who had once attempted to make himself King of Rome. It had been Appuleia herself who had suggested that he divorce her at once. They had three sons, and it was of paramount importance that the family fortunes remain intact for the younger two of these boys; the oldest had been adopted into the ranks of Cornelius Scipio and was bound to prosper, that family being closely related to Sulla and uniformly in Sulla's camp. Scipio Aemilianus (namesake of his famous ancestor) was fully grown at the time Appuleia suggested the divorce, and the second son, Lucius, was eighteen. The youngest, Marcus, was only nine. Though he loved Appuleia dearly, Lepidus had divorced her for the sake of their sons, thinking that at some time in the future when it was safe, he would remarry her. But Appuleia was not the daughter of Saturninus for nothing; convinced that her presence in the lives of her ex-husband and her sons would always place them in jeopardy, she committed suicide. Her death was a colossal blow to Lepidus, who never really recovered emotionally. And so whenever he could he spent his private hours in the house of another man: especially the house of his best friend, Brutus.
"Exactly right! You must never give up," said Brutus. "A steady perseverance will wear the Senate down, I'm sure of it."
"You had better hope that senatorial resistance crumbles quickly," said the third diner, seated on a chair opposite the lectus medius.
Both men looked at Brutus's wife, Servilia, with a concern tempered by considerable respect; what Servilia had to say was always worth hearing.
“What precisely do you mean?'' asked Lepidus.
"I mean that Catulus is girding himself for war."
"How did you find that out?" asked Brutus.
"By keeping my ears pricked," she said with expressionless face. Then she smiled in her secretive, buttoned-up way. "I popped around to visit Hortensia this morning, and she's not the sister of our greatest advocate for no reason- like him, she's an inveterate talker. Catulus adores her, so he talks to her too much-and she talks to anyone with the skill to pump her."
"And you, of course, have
that skill," said Lepidus.
"Certainly. But more importantly I have the interest to pump her. Most of her female visitors are more fascinated by gossip and women's matters, whereas Hortensia would far rather talk politics. So I make it my business to see her often."
"Tell us more, Servilia," said Lepidus, not understanding what she was saying. "Catulus is girding himself for what war? Nearer Spain? He's to go there as governor next year, complete with a new army. So I suppose it's not illogical that he's-er, girding himself for war, as you put it."
"This war has nothing to do with Spain or Sertorius," said Brutus's wife. "Catulus is talking of war in Etruria. According to Hortensia, he's going to start persuading the Senate to arm more legions to deal with the unrest there."
Lepidus sat up straight on the lectus medius. "But that's insanity! There is only one way to keep the peace in Etruria, and that's to give its communities back a good proportion of what Sulla took away from them!"
“Are you in touch with any of the local leaders in Etruria?" asked Servilia.
"Of course."
"The diehards or the moderates?"
"The moderates, I suppose, if by diehards you mean the leaders of places like Volaterrae and Faesulae."
"That's what I mean."
“I thank you for your information, Servilia. Rest assured, I will redouble my efforts to settle matters in Etruria."
Lepidus did redouble his efforts, but could not prevent Catulus from exhorting the house to start recruiting the legions he believed would be necessary to put down the brewing revolt in Etruria. Servilia's timely warning, however, enabled Lepidus to canvass support among the pedarii and the senior backbenchers like Cethegus; the House, listening to Catulus's impassioned diatribe, was lukewarm.
"In fact, Quintus Lutatius," said Cethegus to Catulus, "we are more concerned about the lack of amity between you and our senior consul than we are about hypothetical revolts in Etruria. It seems to us that you have adopted an inflexible policy of opposing whatever our senior consul wants. I find that sad, especially so soon after Lucius Cornelius Sulla went to so much trouble to forge new bonds of co-operation between the various members and factions within the Senate of Rome."
Squashed, Catulus subsided. Not, as it turned out, for very long. Events conspired to make him seem right and to kill any chance Lepidus had of obtaining that elusive senatus consultum for his law giving back much of the sequestrated lands. For at the end of June the dispossessed citizens of Faesulae attacked the soldier settlements all around it, threw the veterans off their allotments, and killed those who resisted.
The deaths of several hundred loyal Sullan legionaries could not be ignored, nor could Faesulae be allowed to get away with outright rebellion. At a moment when the Senate should have been turning its attention toward preparing for the elections to be held in Quinctilis, the Senate forgot all about elections. The lots had been cast to determine which consul would conduct the curule balloting (they fell upon Lepidus), this being a new part of Sulla's constitution, but nothing further was done. Instead, the House instructed both consuls to recruit four new legions each and proceed to Faesulae to put the insurrection down.
The meeting was preparing to break up when Lucius Marcius Philippus rose and asked to speak. Lepidus, who held the fasces for the month of Quinctilis, made his first major mistake: he decided to allow Philippus to have his say.
"My dear fellow senators," said Philippus in stentorian tones, “I beg you not to put an army into the hands of Marcus Aemilius Lepidus! I do not request. I do not ask. I beg! For it is plain to me that our senior consul is plotting revolution- has been plotting revolution ever since he was inaugurated! Until our beloved Dictator died, he did and said nothing. But the moment our beloved Dictator died, it started. He refused to countenance the voting of State funds to bury Sulla! Of course he lost-but I for one never believed he thought he could win! He used the funeral debate as a signal to all his supporters that he was about to legislate treasonous policies. And he proceeded to legislate treasonous policies! He proposed to give back sequestrated lands to people who had deserved to lose them! And when this body stalled, he sought the adulation of every Class lower than the Second by a trick every demagogue has used, from Gaius Gracchus to Lepidus's father-in-law Saturninus-he legislated cheap State grain! Rome was not supposed to vote money to honor the dead body of her greatest citizen-oh, no! But Rome was supposed to spend far more of her public money to dower her worthless proletarii with cheap grain-oh, yes!"
Lepidus was not the only man stunned by this attack; the whole House was sitting bolt upright in shock. Philippus swept on.
"Now, my fellow senators, you want to give this man four legions and send him off to Etruria? Well, I refuse to let you do that! For one thing, the curule elections are due to be held shortly and the lot fell upon him to hold them. Therefore he must remain in Rome to do his duty, not go haring off to raise an army! I remind you that we are about to hold our first free elections in some years, and that it is imperative we hold them on time and with due legality. Quintus Lutatius Catulus is perfectly capable of recruiting and waging war against Faesulae and any other Etrurian communities which may choose to side with Faesulae. It is against Sulla's laws for both consuls to be absent from Rome in order to wage war. Indeed, it was to prevent that from happening that our beloved Dictator incorporated his clause about the specially commissioned command into his opus! We have been provided with the constitutional means to give command in our wars to the most competent man available, even if he is not a member of the Senate. Yet here I find you giving a vital command to a man who has no decent war record! Quintus Lutatius is tried and true, we know him to be competent in military matters. But Marcus Aemilius Lepidus? He's unversed and unproven! He is also, I maintain, a potential revolutionary. You cannot give him legions and send him to wage war in an area where the words out of his own mouth have indicated a treasonous interest in favoring that area over Rome!"
Lepidus had listened slack-jawed to the opening sentences of this speech, but then with sudden decision had turned to his clerk and snatched the wax tablet and stylus from those hands; for the remainder of the time Philippus spoke he took notes. Now he rose to answer, the tablet held where he could refer to it.
"What is your motive in saying these things, Philippus?" he asked, not according Philippus the courtesy of his full name. “I confess myself at a loss to divine your motive-but you have one, of that I am sure! When the Great Tergiversator rises in this House to deliver one of his magnificently worded and delivered speeches, rest assured there is always a hidden motive! Some fellow is paying him to turn his toga yet again! How rich he has become!-how fat!-how contented!-how sunk in a private mire of voluptuousness!-and always in the pay of some creature who needs a senatorial mouthpiece!"
The wax tablet was lifted a little; Lepidus glared sternly across its top at the silent senators. Even Catulus, a glance in his direction showed, was flabbergasted by Philippus's speech. Whoever was behind him, it was definitely not Catulus or any member of his faction.
"I will deal with Philippus's points in order, Conscript Fathers. One, my passivity before the Dictator died. That is not true! As everyone here knows! Cast your minds back!
"Two, the voting of public funds to pay for the Dictator's funeral. Yes, I was opposed. So were many other men. And why not? Are we to have no voices?
"As for-three-my opposition being a signal to my- do I have any?-supporters that I would undo everything Lucius Cornelius Sulla knitted up-what absolute rubbish! I have attempted to have two laws enacted and succeeded with one alone. But have I given the slightest indication to anybody that I intend to overturn Sulla's entire body of laws? Have you heard me criticizing the new court system? Or the new regulations governing the public servants? The Senate? The election process? The new treason laws restraining the actions of provincial governors? The restricted functions of the Assemblies? Even the severely curtailed tribunate of the plebs? No, Conscript Fathers, y
ou have not! Because I do not intend to tamper with these provisions!''
The last sentence was thundered out, so much so that not a few of the men who listened jumped. He paused to allow everyone to recover, then pressed on.
"Four, the allegation that my law returning some sequestrated lands-some, not all!-to their original owners is a treasonous one. That too is rubbish. My lex Aemilia Lepida does not say that any confiscated lands belonging to genuinely treasonous towns or districts should be given back. It concerns only lands belonging to places whose participation in the war against Carbo was innocent or involuntary."
Lepidus dropped his voice, put much feeling into it. “My fellow senators, stop to think for a moment, please! If we are to see a truly united and properly Roman Italy, we must cease to inflict the old penalties we imposed upon the Italian Allies upon men who under the law are now as Roman as we are ourselves! If Lucius Cornelius Sulla erred anywhere, it was in that. In a man of his age it was perhaps understandable. But it is unpardonable for the majority of us, at least twenty years his junior, to think along the same lines he did. I remind you that Philippus here is also an old man, with an old man's outmoded prejudices. When he was censor he displayed his prejudices flagrantly by refusing to do what Sulla in actual fact did do-distribute the new Roman citizens right across the thirty-five tribes."
He was beginning to sway them, for indeed this was a much younger body than it had been ten years ago. Feeling the worst of his anxiety lift, Lepidus continued.
"Five, my grain law. That too righted a very manifest wrong. I believe that had Lucius Cornelius Sulla stayed on as the Dictator for a longer period of time, he would have seen this for himself and done what I did-legislated to return cheap grain to the lower classes. The grain merchants were greedy. None can deny it! And indeed this body was wise enough to see the good sense behind my grain law, for you authorized its passage, and thus removed the likelihood that with this coming harvest Rome might have seen violence and riots. For you cannot take away from the common people a privilege that has been with them long enough for them to assume it is a right!
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