But of course the government was now held cumulatively responsible for all the mischief which itself and others had occasioned, and the indignant hungry multitude desired only an opportunity to settle accounts with the senate.
Reappearance of Pompeius It was a decisive crisis.

The oligarchy, though degraded and disarmed, was not yet overthrown, for the management of public affairs was still in the hands of the senate; but it would fall, if its opponents should appropriate to themselves that management, and more especially the superintendence of military affairs; and now this was possible.

If proposals for another and better management of the war by land and sea were now submitted to the comitia, the senate was obviously--looking to the temper of the burgesses-- not in a position to prevent their passing; and an interference of the burgesses in these supreme questions of administration was practically the deposition of the senate and the transference of the conduct of the state to the leaders of opposition.

Once more the concatenation of events brought the decision into the hands of Pompeius.

For more than two years the famous general had lived as a private citizen in the capital.