Knowing, as we do know now, his immense intellectual capacity, we cannot doubt but at the age he had now reached, thirty-five, B.C.65, he had considered deeply his prospects in life.
There is no reason for supposing that he had conceived the idea of being a great soldier.

That came to him by pure accident, some years afterward.

To be Quaestor, Praetor, and Consul, and catch what was going, seems to have been the cause to him of having encountered extraordinary debt.

That he would have been a Verres, or a Fonteius, or a Catiline, we certainly are not entitled to think.

Over whatever people he might have come to reign, and in whatever way he might have procured his kingdom, he would have reigned with a far-seeing eye, fixed upon future results.
At this period he was looking out for a way to advance himself.