Caesar and the wives of Crassus and Pompey

How reliable are the rumors that Caesar was involved with the wives of Pompey and Crassus? Let's dive in.

First of all, I'd like to say that I'm drawing heavily from this article by a Russian historian: Брачные союзы как инструмент политики в эпоху поздней римской республики: семья триумвира Красса. This rumor always bothered me, but I couldn't articulate why other than "sounds like bullshit." And this article put it together so beautifully, it was like a light bulb went on over my head. I really recommend reading it if you have a chance.

Re-reading Goldsworthy's biography of Caesar made me write this post. I enjoy his book a great deal, but I find his handling of this subject kind of weird. Goldsworthy questions many dubious claims made against Caesar, and he tries to provide sound arguments for why we shouldn't just blindly believe them. But for some reason, he completely disregards this approach when it comes to Caesar's womanizing and presents such stories as undisputed facts.

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Suetonius:

"That he was unbridled and extravagant in his intrigues is the general opinion, and that he seduced many illustrious women, among them Postumia, wife of Servius Sulpicius, Lollia, wife of Aulus Gabinius, Tertulla, wife of Marcus Crassus, and even Gnaeus Pompey's wife Mucia. At any event there is no doubt that Pompey was taken to task by the elder and younger Curio, as well as by many others, because through a desire for power he had afterwards married the daughter of a man on whose account he divorced a wife who had borne him three children, and whom he had often referred to with a groan as an Aegisthus."

Let's look at the women first:

1. Postumia.

In a letter to Atticus in 50 BC, Cicero may have hinted at Postumia's infidelity: "…especially as I cannot keep the excellent Pomptinus even now; Postumius is hurrying him to Rome, perhaps Postumia also."

Catullus 27: "Boy cupbearer of old Falernian, pour me more pungent cups as bids the laws of Postumia, mistress of the feast, drunker than a drunken grape."

Amidst power struggle following Caesar's assassination, the Senate sent Sulpicius as an ambassador to Mark Antony, but he died on the way there. Cicero in the Ninth Philippic: "But, as it is, who is there who doubts that it was the embassy itself which caused his death? For he took death away with him; though, if he had remained among us, his own care, and the attention of his most excellent son and his most faithful wife, might have warded it off."

Not exactly a flawless reputation, but nothing too incriminating.

2. Lollia.

In a letter to Papirius Paetus in 45 BC, Cicero is pondering over words and expressions that have double meaning, and he mentions how a reference to an Aurelia or a Lollia is considered indecent.

I don't think that Lollia in his example is a reference to Gabinius' wife. It's more akin to how "Karen" became an insult in modern times.

3. Tertulla.

Her first husband was Publius Crassus. After he died in the civil strife of the 80s BC, she married his younger brother Marcus and remained his wife until his death. They had two sons together. Tertulla was Marcus Crassus' only wife, which is quite remarkable because other prominent politicians of the day married multiple times.

Technically, there are two stains on her name. But both are of a highly questionable nature. The above story by Suetonius is the first one, and I will address it later. The second one comes from Plutarch, who dedicates a whole paragraph to Cicero's jibes at Crassus. And one of those jibes is that Crassus' son bears resemblance to a guy named Axius.

But that same Cicero uses the following argument in his speech "For Marcus Caelius" in 56 BC: "…after that time no one ever saw Marcus Caelius in that the flower of his age, that he was not either with his father, or with me, or else in that most virtuous house of Marcus Crassus, and being instructed in the most honourable branches of learning." This is a court case that Cicero tries to win. Caelius got serious accusations against him (attempted-murder serious), and the prosecution tried to emphasize his general immorality and debauchery. Cicero, in turn, tried to paint Caelius as a moral and upstanding young man. Now, if Tertulla had an ill reputation, why would he bring up Crassus' house and undermine his own argument? It doesn't make sense. If their "most virtuous house" was considered a viable defense, it strongly implies that Tertulla's reputation was just fine. Cicero won the case, by the way.

4. Mucia.

She married Pompey c. 78 BC, and they had three children: two sons and a daughter. In 62 BC, Pompey divorced her, but he did not give a public reason for it. Nevertheless, Mucia came from a prominent family and remained a respectable figure (she was held in high esteem by Octavian). Two years later, she married Marcus Aemilius Scaurus and had another son with him.

Both the elder and younger Curio were Caesar's enemies, as were "many others" if they tried to split Pompey from Caesar. Did they actually believe the rumor, or were they just trying to exploit it? I would say it's the latter.

Next, the husbands:

Now, this is where it gets highly suspicious. The alleged cuckolded men are Sulpicius, Gabinius, Crassus, and Pompey. These men were seen by the optimates as Caesar's potential successors in the consulship. This is what Cicero says in a letter to Atticus in April of 59 BC: "This is what I am hoping to hear from you in your letter ... whether popular report is right in speaking of Pompey and Crassus as the favorites for the consulship, or a correspondent of mine who mentions Gabinius and Servius Sulpicius."

This list of cuckolded men was almost certainly published at the height of a smear campaign against the triumvirs in 59 BC. The optimates used Caesar's philandering reputation to publicly humiliate his allies and thus break them up. Oftentimes, what was published about them was pure filth that would put modern tabloids to shame. It got so bad that, at one point, Pompey started to crack under pressure because he was not used to such vitriol.

The way Suetonius lists four names as if he's copying a passage from one particular source is hella sus. The Caelius case was three years later. If Tertulla's reputation remained intact, it means this story did not win widespread belief, being such an obvious politically-driven invective.

Personally, I never believed it. Yes, Caesar was known as a womanizer and must have seduced many women, but this list is bullshit. That's my stance on it.

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"It has not been overlooked that this list of cuckolded men includes Caesar's closest political associates. Which means that we must remain skeptical (these specifics are likely to derive from his enemies' abuse)." – W. Jeffrey Tatum