ed and with him 12,000 of his
followers. They fought heroically, their wounds were all in front.
Pompeius as he crossed the Alps met only the bands of desperate
fugitives fleeing from the conqueror. He put them to the sword and
afterwards, to the disgust of Crassus, claimed a share in the victory.
'Though Crassus's men defeated the gladiators in battle, I plucked the
war up by the roots', he told the Senate.

Next year (70) Crassus and Pompeius were elected consuls together. This
did not make them friends. Crassus disliked Pompeius and was exceedingly
jealous of his great position and influence. He did not see why he
should not be recognized as as big a man as Pompeius. Pompeius was cold,
lazy, self-satisfied; good fortune rained its golden shower upon him and
he stood and gathered it up in his hands. Crassus, tingling with energy,
alert in every nerve, was exasperated when he thought of Pompeius.

But he was intelligent enough soon to realize that he would not rise to
the position and power in the State he wanted by his own unaided
efforts. Nor had he to look far to find the person who could give him
what he had not himself got. Pompeius's success filled him with anger
and bitter envy because he disliked Pompeius. His self-satisfied and
slow temper annoyed him. For the powers of Julius Caesar, on the other
hand, Crassus felt nothing but lively admiration, wonder, and even
devotion. He realized his extraordinary qualities at a time when Caesar
was unpopular and unsuccessful. Moreover, he was conquered immediately
by Caesar's personal charm, and never ceased to feel it. Caesar was
loaded with debt: his want of money was his main personal difficulty.
His main political difficulty was the fact that the Democratic or
Popular party had become stamped, at the time of Marius and Cinna, as
the party of revolution and disorder. To Caesar, therefore, Crassus was
invaluable: a firm bond was sealed between them.

Some years later Caesar actually succeeded in reconciling Crassus to
Pompeius by persuading them that as long as they levelled their
artillery against one another they raised people like Cicero and Cato
the Younger to importance. These men would be nothing and could do
nothing if Crassus, Pompeius, and himself were friends and acted
together. He soon proved to be right. The Triumvirate were irresistible.
First Caesar was consul (59): then, four years later (55), Crassus and
Pompeius.

Crassus's thirst for glory made hi