be granted him of overstepping all the minor magistracies and being at once accepted as a candidate for the consulship. To the restrictions of age prescribed by the law he might well reply, as Napoleon did on a like occasion, "a man grows old on the field of battle, and that is where I have been." Here again the government, which might easily have won the support of Pompey, foolishly haggled over the price. The Nobles had soon reason to regret their obstinacy. The democrats grasped the opportunity 71 B.C.and called on Pompey to put himself at the head of the opposition. Pompey and Crassus availed themselves of the pretext of their intended triumph to march their united armies to the gates of Rome. The Senate, which had no troops available, was forced to an ignominious surrender; the necessary decrees were passed, and Pompey and Crassus were elected consuls for the year 70 on the understanding that they were to satisfy the two great sections of the opposition, the democrats by the restoration of their former legal right of initiative to the tribunes, and the Knights by placing them once more on the judicial bench.
In this great assault on the constitution of Sulla, Cicero naturally went with the equestrian order and took the side of Pompey and the opposition. He frankly accepted Pompey for his political leader, and the bond thus knit between them, though often subjected to severe strain, was never wholly broken. Whether Cicero heartily approved of the restoration of the tribunate, or whether he merely acquiesced in it as part of the bargain between the factions, is un-Page:Cicero And The Fall Of The Roman Republic.djvu/71
Pompey's First Consulship.
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