Marriage with a well-connected heiress therefore became an act of policy and an alliance of powers, more important than a magistracy, more binding than any compact of oath or interest. […] But Pompeius required for his ally more than an ordinary proconsulate. […] The facts and elements of power were larger than that. […] The Curia did not see him again for more than three months. […] Rather than emend, Cicero gave it up, gladly.