following up their
advantage and Crassus' quaestor, Cassius Longinus, was able to hold Syria.
Still Roman prestige in the East had received a severe blow and for the
next three centuries the Romans found the Parthians dangerous neighbors.
The death of Crassus tended to hasten a crisis in Rome for it brought into
sharp conflict the incompatible ambitions of Pompey and Caesar, whose
estrangement had already begun with the death of Pompey's wife Julia in 54
B. C.

*Affairs in Rome, 54-49 B. C.* At the end of his consulship Pompey left
Rome but remained in Italy, on the pretext of his curatorship of the grain
supply, and governed his province through his legates. In Rome disorder
reigned; no consuls were elected in 54 B. C. nor before July of the
following year; the partizans of Clodius and Milo kept everything in
confusion. Pompey could have restored order but preferred to create a
situation which would force the Senate to grant him new powers, so he
backed Clodius, while Milo championed the Optimates. Owing to broils
between the supporters of the candidates, no consuls or praetors could be
elected for 52 B. C. In January of that year Clodius was slain by Milo's
body-guard on the Appian Way, and the ensuing outburst of mob violence in
the city forced the Senate to appeal to Pompey. He was made sole consul,
until he should choose a colleague, and was entrusted with the task of
restoring order. His troops brought quiet into the city; Milo was tried on
a charge of public violence, convicted, and banished. Pompey had attained
the height of his official career; he was sole consul, at the same time he
had a province embracing the Spains, Libya, and the sphere assigned to him
with the grain curatorship, he governed his provinces through _legati_,
and his armies were maintained by the public treasury. In reality he was
the chief power in the state, for without him the Senate was helpless, and
he was justly regarded by contemporaries as the First Citizen or Princeps.
In many ways his position foreshadowed the Principate of Augustus.
However, Pompey did not wish to overthrow the republican regime; his
ambition was to be regarded as the indispensable and permanent mainstay of
the government and to enjoy corresponding power and honor. In such a
scheme there was no room for a rival, and therefore he determined upon
Caesar's overthrow. This decision put him on the side of the extreme
Optimates, who were alarmed by Caesar's wealth, influ