It was still violence--always
violence. Was law, men asked, never to resume its authority?--was the
Senate to deal at its pleasure with the lives and properties of
citizens?--criminals though they might be, what right had Cicero to
strangle citizens in dungeons without trial? If this was to be allowed,
the constitution was at an end; Rome was no longer a republic, but an
arbitrary oligarchy. Pompey's name was on every tongue. When would Pompey
come? Pompey, the friend of the people, the terror of the aristocracy!
Pompey, who had cleared the sea of pirates, and doubled the area of the
Roman dominions! Let Pompey return and bring his army with him, and give
to Rome the same peace and order which he had already given to the world.
A Roman commander, on landing in Italy after foreign service, was expected
to disband his legions, and relapse into the position of a private person.
A popular and successful general was an object of instinctive fear to the
politicians who held the reins of government. The Senate was never pleased
to see any individual too much an object of popular idolatry; and in the
case of Pompey their suspicion was the greater on account of the greatness
of his achievements, and because his command had been forced upon them by
the people, against their will. In the absence of a garrison, the city was
at the mercy of the patricians and their clients.
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