you that I must not flinch from my post of honour, and that I must not enlist under the banner of any other, but must effect a junction at the head of my own forces. It is true likewise that the person you name has no breadth or greatness of policy and that he is too much inclined to truckle to the mob. But for all that, it is of some use for the quiet of my own life, and of infinitely greater use for the State, that the blows aimed at me by bad citizens should be parried; and this I accomplished when I strengthened the wavering resolution of a man with such a position, such influence, and such interest, and brought him to frustrate the hopes of the disloyal by recording his approval of my action." Unhappily, though Cicero was so far successful in winning Pompey towards the side of the Senate, he failed, as we shall see just now, in inducing the senatorial party frankly to meet Pompey's advances.
Pompey's position throughout these months was full of anxiety and annoyance. He had pledged his word to his soldiers that their services against Mithridates should be recompensed by grants of land, for the purchase of which ample means were provided by the revenues with which his conquests had enriched the Roman Treasury. But his efforts to get the necessary decrees passed had hitherto been unavailing. Another vexation was, that the Senate refused to confirm the settlement of Asia which Pompey had made before his departure. All the affairs of the provinces of the East with the adjacent free cities and client kingdoms had been regulated and organised by Pompey, and he now wished
