The people demanded that Pompey return.

In him they thought to have a deliverer from internal strifes.
Cicero was wrapped up in his own conceit, imagining himself a second Romulus.

On the last day of the year (63), as was the custom of the retiring Consuls, he arose in the Forum to deliver a speech, reviewing the acts of his year of consulship.

Metellus Nepos, a Tribune, forbade his speaking, on the ground that one who had put to death Roman citizens without a hearing did not deserve to be heard.

Amid the uproar Cicero could only shout that he had saved his country.