We hear from Cicero himself that he was quite equal to the occasion.

He swore, on the spur of the moment, a solemn oath, not in accordance with the form common to Consuls on leaving office, but to the effect that during his Consulship Rome had been saved by his work alone.[212] We have the story only as it is told by Cicero himself, who avers that the people accepted the oath as sworn with exceeding praise.[213] That it was so we may, I think, take as true.

There can be no doubt as to Cicero's popularity at this moment, and hardly a doubt also as to the fact that Metellus was acting in agreement with Caesar, and also in accord with the understood feelings of Pompey, who was absent with his army in the East.
This Tribune had been till lately an officer under Pompey, and went into office together with Caesar, who in that year became Praetor.

This, probably, was the beginning of the party which two years afterward formed the first Triumvirate, B.C.60.

It was certainly now, in the year succeeding the Consulship of Cicero, that Caesar, as Praetor, began his great career.
[Sidenote: B.C.62, aetat.