The Senate was confronted by continuous warfare in the provinces and on the frontiers of its wide and cumbersome dominion against Sertorius and the last survivors of the Marian faction in Spain, against the great Mithridates and against the Pirates. […] Clodius was an ally of Cicero against Catilina. […] They now turned against the oligarchs. […] The majority of the leading consulars was massed against him. […] Senate, plebs and veterans were mobilized against him.