He still believed, as we cannot believe now, that there was a residuum of good in the Senate sufficient to blossom forth into new powers of honest government.

When speaking to the oligarchs in the Senate of Rullus and his land law, it was easy enough to carry them with him.

That a Consul should oppose a Tribune who was coming forward with a "Lex agraria" in his hands, as the latest disciple of the Gracchi, was not out of the common order of things.

Another Consul would either have looked for popularity and increased power of plundering, as Antony might have done, or have stuck to his order, as he would have called it--as might have been the case with the Cottas, Lepiduses and Pisos of preceding years.

But Cicero determined to oppose the demagogue Tribune by proving himself to the people to be more of a demagogue than he.