First Triumvirate Question?

Question

What were the ramifications of the breakdown of the First Triumvirate? Or of the First Triumvirate itself?

Answer 1

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Answer 2

In simple words: you had two power blocks: the boni (good men, the conservative senators, a minority faction with a lot of power) and the populi ('for the people'; the majority of the senate but with far less political power to get things done their way).

Caesar, Pompey and Crassus couldn't get things done alone. Necessity drove them together. The boni blocked whatever they wanted, but together they could run rings around the boni.

That worked for a while, but it was an agreement of necessity. When it started, Caesar was the minority partner. Crassus died on the battlefield, later Caesar's daughter died, weakening the link with Pompey. The boni were able to subvert him to their cause, which left Caesar little option short of revolting. Which he did.

In essence, the conservatives wanted to run the empire like a city state. Pompey and Caesar wanted to run it more centralized as an empire. Had they not been around, others would have done exactly the same thing. It was a trend that started long before Pompey or Caesar were born.  

Answer 3

The First Triumvirate was the the culmination of decades of inept governing at the hands of the senate, the Roman governing body whose lack of a clear separation of powers allowed influential senators to consolidate power. Attempts to reduce these trends failed, and by the early last century B.C, almost all of the power was focused in the hands of three very powerful, rich, and influential men. Although the senate was still the de jure rulers of the Romans, Julius Caesar, Pompey Magnus, and Marcus Crassus were the de facto rulers, who comanded the armies and called the shots. The balance of power was maintained by Crassus's wealth and by Caesar and Pompey's relationship by virtue of Pompey's marriage to Caesar's daughter.

The triumvirate came crashing down during Crassus's expedition to Parthia. During the disastrous Battle of Carrhe, The Roman army was routed and Crassus executed by the Parthians (supposedly by pouring molten gold down his throat). There was also a breech in Caesar and Pompey's alliance when Caesar's daughter died in childbirth, and Caesar was returning from the conquests of the Gauls as a very wealthy man. There was also tensions due to Caesar's political beliefs. Pompey was apolitical until circumstances forced him to pick allies with the conservatives opposing Caesar. They met in Greece and Caesar defeated Pompey, becoming the sole power in Rome.

The ramifications were tremendous; Caesar became so powerful that certain senators feared his ambitions, and assassinated him. This proved to do more harm than good, as the power vacuum that was created was filled by the second Triumvirate, which ultimately paved the way for Octavian's rise to Emperor and the establishment of the Roman Empire.

Answer 4

It led to Julius Caesar's assassination in the long run, and some would say ultimately to the downfall of the Roman Empire. I somewhat agree.