Domitius made no secret that he intended as consul to propose to the burgesses the immediate recall of Caesar from Gaul.

An aristocratic restoration was at work; and with the attack on the colony of Capua the nobility threw down the gauntlet to the regents.
Conference of the Regents at Luca Caesar, although receiving from day to day detailed accounts of the events in the capital and, whenever military considerations allowed, watching their progress from as near a point of his southern province as possible, had not hitherto, visibly at least interfered in them.

But now war had been declared against him as well as his colleague, in fact against him especially; he was compelled to act, and he acted quickly.

He happened to be in the very neighbourhood; the aristocracy had not even found it advisable to delay the rupture, till he should have again crossed the Alps.

In the beginning of April 698 Crassus left the capital, to concert the necessary measures with his more powerful colleague; he found Caesar in Ravenna.