After Sulla’s ordinances, a restored oligarchy of the nobiles held office at Rome. […] Office was accessible to the ‘industria ac virtus’ of all citizens. […] Cato nearly deprived him of his office (Plutarch, Pompeius 54). […] Yet they were nothing new or alarming in the holders of office and power at Rome. […] His year of office would have to go far in violence and corruption to equal the first consulate of Caesar.