Hello, and welcome to the history of Rome, Episode 39, the young Julius Caesar chronicles.

Last time, we covered Cat Alliance-illefated conspiracy during the Consulship of Cicero

in 63VC. This week, I want to backtrack a bit and fill in some of the gaps on our way

to the formation of the alliance between Pompey, Crasus and Julius Caesar in 60VC, now called

the first triumvirate. In the aftermath of Spartacus's slave revolt, Pompey and Crasus

had served as co-consuls, and though they functioned well enough publicly, personally, they

were bitter rivals, or at least Crasus was bitter rivals with Pompey, I'm not really

sure how much thought Pompey ever gave to Crasus. After their share of Consulship, they

were glad to be rid of each other. It was not until a decade later that they were brought

together again, this time by a man who would soon be Consul himself and desperately needed

allies and is coming flame war with the Senate, Gaia's Julius Caesar. And when I say

fill in some gaps, it turns out what I really meant is right as sprawling, double-length

episode on Caesar's early career. Gaia's Julius Caesar was born in 100VC into

the ancient patrician Julius I family, though the family traced their lineage back to

Indias, and thus to the goddess Venus herself, they had in recent generations fallen on

hard times. While they always maintained respectability, they had long since passed to the margins

of Roman political life. Caesar's particular branch was on the margins of Roman economic

life as well, and the boy grew up in a neighborhood called the Subaru, which was far, both geographically

and culturally, from the estates of his fellow patrician nobles on the Palatine hill.

I think it goes without saying that being raised in what amounted to a tenement building

owned by his parents had a great impact on Caesar's later populist politics. Yes, he

had impeccable patrician credentials, but Caesar would always identify himself with the

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