Editing First Triumvirate (section)

==== Caesar ====
Caesar in 60&nbsp;BC was the recently returning governor of [[Hispania Ulterior]].{{sfn|Drogula|2019|p=119}} At this point, he was the least powerful of the three,{{sfn|Russell|2015}} although he had, in an upset, won election as [[pontifex maximus]] in 63&nbsp;BC.{{sfn|Broughton|1952|p=171}} Energetic and a capable supporter of Pompey for the last decade, he was also indebted to Crassus, who was a guarantor of Caesar's debts.{{sfn|Gruen|1995|pp=87–88}} Upon his early return from Spain in June 60&nbsp;BC,{{sfn|Millar|1998|p=123}} he was forced to choose between [[Pomerium|entering the city]] to declare candidacy for the consulship, which would dissolve his [[Imperium|military command]] and make him ineligible for a [[Roman triumph|triumph]], or staying outside of the city in an attempt to work a triumph from the senate.{{sfn|Drogula|2019|pp=119–20}} While the senate had regularly permitted candidacies ''in absentia'', Cato [[filibuster]]ed Caesar's request; Caesar, shockingly, gave up his triumphal eligibility to declare his candidacy.{{sfn|Drogula|2019|p=120}} Caesar was the known favorite for the consulship; to hobble him, Cato and his allies took two actions. They sought to assign the yet-to-be-elected consuls of 59&nbsp;BC to home defence in Italy and sought the election of an uncooperative consular colleague.{{sfn|Drogula|2019|p=121}}<ref>The traditional narrative is the senate assigned the consuls of 59 to forests and country paths (''silvae callesque'') to rob them of a profitable governorship. Others, such as Rhodes and Balsdon, have instead suggested the warrant was to defend Italy from northern invasion and defer assignment to later senatorial initiative. {{harvnb|Rhodes|1978}}.</ref> In both respects, they were successful: the consuls of 59 received commands that put them in a holding pattern and Cato secured election of his son-in-law and a personal enemy of Caesar's, [[Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus]], as Caesar's co-consul.{{sfnm|Rhodes|1978|1p=620, noting assignment to the ''silvae callesque'' was "intended not... as a device to cheat Caesar... but as a token province which would satisfy the requirements of the law [the ''[[lex Sempronia de provinciis consularibus]]''] [and] leave the senate free to delay a serious decision until the [threat] in Gaul had become clearer"|Drogula|2019|2p=121}} Caesar won his election handily, but to turn his provincial assignment into glory and defeat Bibulus' obstruction, he would need allies.{{sfnm|Gruen|1995|1p=89|Drogula|2019|2p=125}}