to be independent of him. Their alarms were still directed to Pompey; he was to them still what a "scatterbrained young man"[1] had nick-named him during Cæsar's consulship, "The Dictator without office." The majority then of the Senate resolved in their wisdom that Pompey was not to be trusted with an army, and accordingly, on the pretext of a Sibylline oracle, unearthed for the occasion, they passed a decree that the King of Egypt must not be restored by military force. Even with this restriction they were unwilling that Pompey should be allowed to meddle with Egypt; and, indeed, there were numerous rival candidates for so lucrative a commission. While Pompey's adherents urged his claims, Pompey himself affected to approve of Cicero's exertions on behalf of his benefactor Lentulus Spinther, who after his consulship had become governor of Cilicia and Cyprus. Cicero writes to Lentulus that "when he hears Pompey speak, he acquits him of any hankering after the job," but that his action is so inconsistent that he cannot penetrate his real wishes. "You know," he adds, "how slow the man is, and how incapable of speaking out."[2] The time was wasted in endless wrangles, and nothing could be settled in the Senate. Ptolemy remained an exile till the next year (55 B.C.) when Gabinius, the governor of Syria, without any authorisation from the home government, restored him to his throne.
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The Political Situation.
[56 B.C.
