Yet the old framework and categories subsist: a monarchy rules through an oligarchy. […] It was prosecuted, in war and in peace, through illegality and treachery. […] A few names stand out, through merit or accident, from a dreary background. […] Where Pompeius lost supporters through inertia, vanity or perfidy, Caesar gained them and held them. […] Pompeius to terms) and carried through the allotment of praetorian provinces for the following year.