Pompeius which they viewed as the setting up of a tyranny, and they severally exhorted and encouraged one another to oppose the law and not to give up their freedom.  But when the time came, the rest kept back through fear of the people and were silent, except Catulus, who after finding much fault with the law and the tribune, yet without persuading any one, urged the Senate from the Rostra, repeating it many times, to seek for a mountain,[250] like their ancestors, and a rock, to which they might fly for refuge and preserve their liberty.  Accordingly the law was ratified, as they say, by all the tribes[251] and Pompeius in his absence was put in possession of nearly everything which Sulla got after he had made himself master of the city by arms and war.  On receiving the letters and reading the decrees in the presence of his friends who were congratulating him, Pompeius is said to have contracted his eyebrows and to have struck his thigh, and to have spoken like a man who was already tired and averse to command, “Oh, the endless toils, how much better it were to have been one unknown to fame, if there shall never be an end to my military service and I shall never elude this envy and live quietly in the country with my wife."[252] On hearing these expressions not even his intimate friends could endure his hypocritical pretences, as they knew that he was the more delighted, inasmuch as his difference with Lucullus gave additional fire to his innate ambition and love of command.

XXXI.  And in truth his acts soon discovered his real temper:  for he issued counter-edicts in all directions by which he required the presence of the soldiers and summoned to him the subject rulers and kings.  And as he traversed the country, he let nothing that Lucullus had done remain undisturbed, but he both remitted the punishments of many, and took away what had been given, and in short he left nothing undone in his eagerness to prove to the admirers of Lucullus[253] that he was entirely without power.  Lucullus through his friends complained to Pompeius, and it was agreed that they should have a meeting.  They met in Galatia:  and as they were most distinguished generals and had won the greatest victories, their lictors met with the fasces wreathed with bay; but Lucullus advanced from green and shady parts, and Pompeius happened to have crossed an extensive tract without trees and parched.  Accordingly the lictors of Lucullus seeing that the bays of Pompeius were faded and completely withered, gave them some of their own which were fresh, and so decorated and wreathed the fasces of Pompeius with them.  This was considered a sign that Pompeius was coming to carry off the prizes of victory and the glory that was due to Lucullus.  As to the order of his consulship and in age also Lucullus had the priority, but the reputation of Pompeius was more exalted on account of his two triumphs.  However they managed their first interview with as much civility and friendliness as they could, magnifying