ancestors overcame at sea King Antiochus and Perseus and the Carthaginians, we could not on any waters look pirates in the face. . . . And yet in those bad days the magistrates of the Roman People were not ashamed to take their stand on this very platform which your ancestors left to you adorned with the spoils of fleets and with the beaks torn from the ships of our enemies."[1]
This reproach was quickly wiped away. In the year 67 B.C. Aulus Gabinius, a tribune of the plebs, proposed to the People that one man of consular rank should be invested for three years with supreme command over the whole Mediterranean and its coasts and islands, and should have all the resources of the Empire placed at his disposal for a great effort to clear the seas of pirates. The name of Pompey was not mentioned in the law, but it was certain that the popular vote would fall on him.[2] This proposal was eagerly welcomed by every rank in the State, except the senators. The populace of the capital was cut off from its supplies of grain; the country-people of Italy found not even the great Appian Road safe from the free-booters; the Roman Knights, who had business relations in all parts of the civilised world, suffered from an interruption of communications ruinous to their interests. All were sick of the prolonged inaction and feebleness of the government, and called upon it to stand aside and let the one efficient man do the work. In spite of the utmost efforts of the senatorial leaders the law
