To him, should he be overtasked, they would give no assistance.

But the first thing he would look for should be their good opinion.

To declare now, before the people, that he would exercise his office for the good of the people was his natural duty.

But in that place, in which it was difficult to speak after such a fashion, in the Senate itself, on the very first day of his Consulship, he had declared the same thing--"popularem me futurum esse consulem."[173] The course he had to pursue was noble, but very difficult.

He desired, certainly, to be recognized as a friend of the people, but he desired so to befriend them that he might support also at the same time the power of the aristocracy.