Chapter 166 : Exsurge Domine
That morning began like any other.
Roman citizens gathered in the Forum to hear the latest news.
"I can’t begin the day without hearing the latest news."
"I think the new crier has a pretty good voice, don’t you?"
"You think so? I liked the last crier better. This one’s loud, sure, but his delivery is just so dry."
As more citizens trickled in, criers stationed throughout the Forum began calling out the latest news.
But the criers weren’t the only ones sharing information.
Posters and pamphlets had also become important sources of public information.
Literate citizens read the published Senate proceedings and engaged in heated debates over a wide range of political issues.
But that morning, something else caught everyone’s attention.
A freshly pasted poster and pamphlets.
Posters themselves were nothing new in Rome, but the content of this one was unlike anything the citizens had seen before.
"A twenty-five-point refutation of the free-grain proposal? What is this?"
"Look at the bottom. It says Cato wrote it."
"Cato did?"
Public slaves assigned to maintain the Forum were plastering the exact same poster on walls and columns everywhere.
"You know how to read, don’t you? What on earth does it say?"
"First, Clodius claims he is giving you grain for free, but this is a lie.
The grain is grown by farmers, transported by merchants, and paid for by the state treasury. Just because a citizen hands over no coin at the distribution center does not make the grain free.
If Clodius kept buying grain with his own money, we would call him generous. However, he is buying the citizens’ favor with the state’s coin."
As one man read the text aloud, other citizens swarmed around him to listen.
"Second, helping the starving is just.
However, it is neither just nor right to feed every citizen forever. Helping victims of disaster recover is relief. Feeding healthy, able-bodied men at public expense is not relief.
Next, they will demand free meat and wine.
Politicians will promise more, and citizens will demand more in return.
Ultimately, elections will be won not by the most virtuous man, but by the man who promises the greatest handouts."
In the dead silence of the Forum, only the reader and the other criers could be heard.
"Third, a man who relies on another for his daily bread is not a free man. Clodius is not simply giving the citizens grain. He is placing them in his debt.
The treasury pays for the grain, the state transports it, and the state distributes it.
Yet Clodius will demand your votes in return. He who controls the distribution can make men fear starvation. And a citizen who fears starvation cannot cast his vote freely."
The moment the recitation ended, the Forum erupted into chaotic debate.
"So basically, Cato opposes free grain because he hates spending a single coin from the treasury?"
"But Cato makes a valid point. If we spend that much of the treasury on grain, the whole One-Year Plan has to be scrapped, doesn’t it?"
"Exactly! Do you have any idea how many new jobs were created because of the One-Year Plan?"
Up until that morning, the vast majority of citizens had wholeheartedly supported Clodius and Curio’s proposal for free grain.
But the moment the new pamphlet went up, the seemingly united public began to split into opposing camps.
"Many poor citizens already buy grain at heavily subsidized prices, don’t they? Why should we drain even more money from the treasury just to give grain away? We could use that coin to build roads, ports, or other useful things."
"But if they get grain for free, wouldn’t that ease the burden on the poor even further?"
And this heated debate was not confined to the Forum.
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"We have to retaliate! They’re handing these out in the Forum right now!"
Curio shouted, his face flushed with anger, but Clodius remained dead silent.
His eyes were glued to the pamphlet in his hand.
It was a tiny booklet, barely eight pages long, but its quality was far superior to the pamphlets he had been printing.
The cover was adorned with beautiful, intricate patterns framing the title, almost making it feel like a piece of fine art.
It stood in stark contrast to his own pamphlets, which were little more than walls of densely packed text.
No matter how much money he offered, not a single artist in Rome was willing to accept his commission and take up the fight against Lucius Caesar.
"Isn’t this exactly why we’ve been gathering supporters?! We need to send them marching into the Forum right now!"
"There is no need to act so rashly."
"So we just sit here and do nothing?!"
"I’ve already sent our supporters to Cato’s estate. They won’t do anything drastic; they’ll just hold a peaceful demonstration. We can easily paint Cato as a cold-blooded Senator who cares nothing for the suffering of the plebeians."
"That’s not going to be enough!"
Curio muttered, angrily worrying at one of his fingernails.
"If even a single tribune vetoes the bill, it dies immediately. When you consider how much of our fortune we’ve already poured into this."
"The tribunes won’t veto it. I’ll make absolutely sure of that," Clodius said with a wicked smirk.
"No matter how they try to sway public opinion with these little booklets, what truly matters is the mood at the assembly on the day of the vote. As long as we can bring a large enough crowd of supporters to the assembly, the bill will pass."
He rose from his seat. "But you are right. We can’t simply sit here We need to print more pamphlets of our own and strike back."
"Retaliating with pamphlets... I’m not entirely sure that’s the smartest move."
"If they take the field on horseback, we must meet them in the saddle."
Clodius said, his face twisting into a scowl.
His plan had been to rally as many supporters as possible to ram the bill through the assembly.
"I expected them to gather a mob of their own and meet us in the streets," Clodius murmured.
But Caesar and the Senate had launched an attack from a completely unexpected angle.
Instead of answering with street brawls, they had answered with ink and paper.
Clodius set the pamphlet down on the table.
Caesar’s seal was imprinted at the bottom of the cover.
The emblem combined Caesar’s eagle with the wheel of Fortuna—the unmistakable mark of his printing house.
"Let’s strike back in a way they’ll never expect."
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"This isn’t what we agreed upon!"
"Your book is already being printed, Senator. It’s just that the manuscript is so incredibly long..."
"Even so, you printed and distributed Cato’s piece before mine?"
Cicero was practically throwing a tantrum.
This man was seriously exhausting to deal with.
He had summoned me over an urgent matter, and I had come all this way just to hear him complain about this?
If I had known, I would have just stayed in the office.
"I wrote that piece with greater passion than anything I have ever written before—and only because you asked me to!"
"But the format simply wasn’t suitable for a pamphlet," I replied, clearing my throat. Both Cato and Cicero had fulfilled my request admirably.
In just a few days, they had both drafted brilliant, carefully reasoned rebuttals to the free-grain proposal.
However, Cicero’s piece had one small problem. Actually, a ’long’ problem would be a more accurate description.
"It was impossible to fit the entirety of your piece into a pamphlet. And summarizing it proved to be quite difficult as well."
The pamphlets were small quarto booklets of eight or sixteen pages, made by folding one or two sheets of paper.
It was the same format that would become wildly popular during the Protestant Reformation sparked by Martin Luther.
These pamphlets could be produced quickly and cheaply, but they could hold only a limited amount of text.
Cicero’s writing was both too long and too elaborate for the format.
It suited a full-sized volume, but it was completely unsuited for this fast-paced pamphlet war.
"I condensed it as much as humanly possible, exactly as you requested! Compared to that, the piece Cato wrote is..."
Cicero pointed indignantly at the pamphlet on the desk.
"It’s far too brief, written entirely in overly simplistic language. It lacks the gravitas required for a debate of this magnitude!"
"The citizens of Rome seem to disagree," I said. Cato’s piece had surprised me in more ways than one.
As if perfectly reflecting his own personality, every word was chosen for maximum clarity and brevity.
It was written so plainly that anyone who read it could instantly grasp the point.
In a way, it was the exact opposite of Cicero’s style.
That was what made it perfect for a pamphlet.
Come to think of it, hadn’t Cicero been obsessing over the role of chief judge for the literary contest not long ago? He had ultimately been forced to give it up because of Tullia.
Was that fierce competitive streak of his now directed at Cato instead of Father?
Cicero really did have a habit of obsessing over the pettiest things.
"The complete version of your work is already being printed as a full-length volume, Senator. But producing it requires far more material and labor than printing a pamphlet, which naturally means the price will be higher as well."
"Anyone who genuinely cares about the future of this Republic will value my work far more," Cicero huffed, folding his arms.
"Assuming you actually publish it on time, as promised."
"You need not worry, Senator. We are using the finest paper and binding materials available in Rome. I assure you, every citizen in Rome will want a copy."
I let out a soft chuckle as Cicero’s features finally softened with relief.
Cato would have an inexpensive pamphlet, while Cicero would have a deluxe hardbound volume.
And it wasn’t just these two.
Countless other senators and politicians were already using pamphlets to circulate their political arguments.
At the very least, one fact was certain.
Future scholars in this timeline would have more Latin texts than they knew what to do with.
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As the pamphlet war intensified, the presses ran day and night, churning out pamphlets and printed sheets.
The pamphlet war Cato had opened quickly escalated when Clodius’s faction launched its counterattack.
"Look. This pamphlet was published this morning."
"You bought it? Let me read it with you."
More and more citizens were willingly spending coin to purchase pamphlets.
As literacy classes spread through the collegia, a growing number of citizens could now read for themselves.
And the pamphlet war was a new political arena in which ordinary citizens could participate directly.
For those who wanted to take part, keeping up with the latest pamphlets soon became part of the daily routine.
"I’m against the free grain dole. I’d rather they use that coin to repair the existing roads."
"I agree. My cousin hauls goods to Rome by wagon every market day, and he says the roads are in such terrible shape it’s a complete nightmare."
Supporters of free grain and those fiercely opposed to it clashed in heated debate.
As the two sides clashed in heated debate, the busiest man in all of Rome was undoubtedly Brutus.
Every single day, Brutus compiled the latest reports from across Rome, edited them, and had them delivered to the citizens by the following morning.
With the enormous volume of pamphlets and books that also had to be printed, his workload soon became overwhelming.
But even amidst the chaos, Brutus managed to keep the promise he had made to Lucius and to his own uncle, Cato.
"I heard you recently published a book about Senator Cato. The response has been extraordinary."
"It’s just an eight-page booklet. It’s essentially a pamphlet in all but name."
"Still, it seems everyone is clamoring to read it. You’ve become a full-fledged man of letters now, Brutus."
Brutus’s short biography of Cato sold out almost as soon as it was published.
"To think he actually berated the other senators into opening their homes during the Subura fire. Cato truly is an extraordinary man."
"Do you know how many corrupt officials he exposed back when he served as quaestor? And remember his audit of the foundations? He might be frustratingly stubborn, but his integrity is absolute."
As Cato’s biography became enormously popular, the pamphlet he authored drew even greater attention.
Just as Rome’s citizens were discovering the power of the written word, the conflict took a new turn.
Clodius and Curio’s most fervent supporters began pouring into the Forum.
"Caesar is blinding you with fake news! Every piece of news delivered in this Forum is a filthy lie!"
"This free grain bill must pass if we plebeians are to survive!"
"If you want to know the truth, read this pamphlet!"
Hundreds of men gathered in the Forum every single day, staging protests and deliberately drowning out the criers’ voices.
While they hadn’t resorted to outright violence,their sheer numbers and hostility were enough to intimidate ordinary citizens.
As the scene repeated itself morning after morning, citizens who had once gathered to hear the news gradually began avoiding the Forum.
Faced with this crisis, Caesar’s supporters, including Brutus, were forced to reconsider their strategy.
"We must call out our workers, clients, and supporters as well! We have to stop those bastards from monopolizing the Forum!"
"If we do that,the Forum will descend into a mass brawl right away. We need to find another way."
"They are all but threatening us with drawn swords! We can’t just fight back with our bare hands! We must bring this issue before the Senate!"
"They have not resorted to violence yet. If we are the first to use force, it may backfire and drive more citizens into Clodius’s camp."
"Perhaps that is exactly what they’re hoping for."
To win the pamphlet war, they desperately needed a public gathering place where they could reach the citizens.
With the Forum effectively under Clodius’s control, they were fighting with one arm tied behind their backs.
It was Felix who finally offered a different solution.
"Do we have to distribute all our pamphlets and news sheets in the Forum?"
"What do you mean? Where else in Rome are we supposed to reach the citizens?"
"I realized something while planning the redevelopment of the Subura," Felix said, unfurling a map of Rome.
"There is another public place where people gather every day—patricians, plebeians, and slaves alike."
"You don’t mean..."
"Yes. The public bathhouses."
Felix nodded firmly.
The bathhouses were among the most heavily used public facilities in Rome.
"No matter how many thugs Clodius has at his disposal... there is no way he could occupy every bathhouse in Rome."
It was a place where men could debate freely while stark naked.
Felix pointed at several circles drawn on the map.
"We must move the battlefield here."
"..."
The room fell silent for a moment. Then Brutus finally spoke.
"Forgive me for saying so, but that may be the most insane proposal I have heard all year."
At that, Felix laughed.
"That’s exactly what I used to say to the young master."