Was it any wonder that henceforward rancour always, and terror wherever they durst, characterized the government of the lords of the old nobility?
that those who governed confronted as an united and compact party, with far more sternness and violence than hitherto, the non- governing multitude?
that family-policy now prevailed once more, just as in the worst times of the patriciate, so that e.g.the four sons and (probably) the two nephews of Quintus Metellus--with a single exception persons utterly insignificant and some of them called to office on account of their very simplicity--attained within fifteen years (631-645) all of them to the consulship, and all with one exception also to triumphs--to say nothing of sons-in-law and so forth?
that the more violent and cruel the bearing of any of their partisans towards the opposite party, he received the more signal honour, and every outrage and every infamy were pardoned in the genuine aristocrat?
that the rulers and the ruled resembled two parties at war in every respect, save in the fact that in their warfare no international law was recognized?
It was unhappily only too palpable that, if the old aristocracy beat the people with rods, this restored aristocracy chastised it with scorpions.

It returned to power; but it returned neither wiser nor better.

Never hitherto had the Roman aristocracy been so utterly deficient in men of statesmanly and military capacity, as it was during this epoch of restoration between the Gracchan and the Cinnan revolutions.
Marcus Aemilius Scaurus A significant illustration of this is afforded by the chief of the senatorial party at this time, Marcus Aemilius Scaurus.

The son of highly aristocratic but not wealthy parents, and thus compelled to make use of his far from mean talents, he raised himself to the consulship (639) and censorship (645), was long the chief of the senate and the political oracle of his order, and immortalized his name not only as an orator and author, but also as the originator of some of the principal public buildings executed in this century.
But, if we look at him more closely, his greatly praised achievements amount merely to this much, that, as a general, he gained some cheap village triumphs in the Alps, and, as a statesman, won by his laws about voting and luxury some victories nearly as serious over the revolutionary spirit of the times.

His real talent consisted in this, that, while he was quite as accessible and bribable as any other upright senator, he discerned with some cunning the moment when the matter began to be hazardous, and above all by virtue of his superior and venerable appearance acted the part of Fabricius before the public.