He had completely run himself into a noose.

One of his opponents summed up his political position at that time by saying that he had endeavoured "to conserve by silence his embroidered triumphal mantle." In fact nothing was left for him but to fret.
Rise of Caesar Then a new combination offered itself.

The leader of the democratic party had actively employed in his own interest the political calm which had immediately followed on the retirement of the previous holder of power.

When Pompeius returned from Asia, Caesar had been little more than what Catilina was--the chief of a political party which had dwindled almost into a club of conspirators, and a bankrupt.

But since that event he had, after administering the praetorship (692), been invested with the governorship of Further Spain, and thereby had found means partly to rid himself of his debts, partly to lay the foundation for his military repute.