The senators came to him and bowed low, and said their "_Aves_" and "_Salves_" as though cringing before a Mithridates or Tigranes of the East; and Pompeius, by the cordiality or coolness of his response, indicated which of his vassals had or had not fallen under his disfavour.
[142] Assembly-place in the _Forum Romanum_.
Yes, despotism had come at last for Rome.

The oligarchy had by its corrupt incapacity made a tyranny inevitable.

They could make choice of masters, but a master they must have.

Many were the proud Fabii, Claudii, and Valerii present that night--men whose lines of curule ancestors were as long as the duration of the Republic--who ground their teeth with shame and inward rage the very moment they cried, "_Salve, Magne!_" Yet the recipient of all this adulation was in no enviable frame of mind.

He looked harassed and weary, despite the splendour of his dress and crown.