Old Enemies - Same Consulship - Creating "Alauda" Legionnaires

Near the end of my consulship, Gaius Memmius and Lucius Domitius, two praetors, demanded to the Senate that there should be an inquiry into the conduct of Pompey, Crassius, and myself as consuls. I went to the Senate to refer to the matter, but they would not discuss it with me. After three wasted days of waiting to hear about the inquiry, I left for Gaul. Those were three days I could have spent helping to preserve the Rome's glory in Gaul. It was three days that could have been spent to better my career, but instead, I was at home. The Senate, after I had left, charged my quaestor with various irregularities for their first step towards their attempt at impeaching me. Soon after, Lucius Antistius, a tribune of the Roman people, stood in the Forum, and he arraigned me. However, I appealed to the whole college of Roman Tribunes, pleading that my absence was of national importance, the glory of Rome. They put off the trial. Furthermore, to prevent this incredibly dense situation to ever reoccur, I made a point of placing chief magistrates of every year under certain obligations to me. I also refused to support any further candidates from being elected unless they did not cause me any trouble or speak against me. The new candidates had to see my cause, and they have to defend my cause while I was absent from Rome. If they did not defend my cause while I'm away, I would not be able to bring glory to the Republic, and if I cannot succeed, Rome would not succeed. I made sure that the candidates would not go back on their promises by oath, and sometimes, they singed a contract to me.
However, it became difficult when Lucius Domitius campaigned for consul, and he openly stood against me and threatened my cause. Domitius threatened to remove me from my military command, though he failed while he was a praetor. I called upon Crassus and Pompey to meet in Luca, a settlement in my governed providence, to convince them to prolong my governorship of Gaul for five years, and I asked them to oppose Domitius' candidature for consul. It was a success. In this success, I took upon the advantage, and I expanded my regular army by raising more legions at my own expense. Some recruits for the legions were Gallic. One man recruited from Transalpine Gaul referred to the raising of the army as "Alauda," meaning that I trained and equipped Gallic men in Rome's providence in Roman style. I would then make all the Gallic men into full Roman citizens.


Sources Used:

Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars, Penguin Classics Revised Edition, December 18, 2007. Print