With this triumph the first and most glorious part of Pompey's life may be said to have ended. Hitherto he had been employed almost exclusively in war; but now he was called upon to play a prominent part in the civil commotions of the Republic--a part for which neither his natural talents nor his previous habits had in the least fitted him. From the death of Sulla to the present time, a period of nearly twenty years, he had been unquestionably the first man in the Roman world, but he did not retain much longer this proud position, and soon discovered that the genius of Caesar had reduced him to a second place in the state. It would seem as if Pompey, on his return to Rome, hardly knew to which party to attach himself. He had been appointed to the command against the pirates and Mithridates in opposition to the aristocracy, and they still regarded him with jealousy and distrust. He could not, therefore, ally himself to them, especially too as some of their most influential leaders, such as M. Crassus and L. Lucullus, were his personal enemies. At the same time he seems to have been indisposed to unite himself to the popular party, which had risen into importance during his absence in the East, and over which Caesar possessed unbounded influence. But the object which engaged the immediate attention of Pompey was to obtain from the Senate a ratification of his acts in Asia, and an assignment of lands which he had promised to his veterans. In order to secure this object, he had purchased the Consulship for one of his officers, L. Afranius, who was elected with Q. Metellus for B.C. 60. But L. Afranius was a man of slender ability; and the Senate, glad of an opportunity to put an affront upon a person whom they both feared and hated, resolutely refused to sanction Pompey's measures in Asia. This was the unwisest thing they could have done. If they had known their real interests, they would have yielded to all Pompey's wishes, and have sought by every means to win him over to their side, as a counterpoise to the growing and more dangerous influence of Caesar. But their short-sighted policy threw Pompey into Caesar's arms, and thus sealed the downfall of their party. Pompey was resolved to fulfill the promises he had made to his Asiatic clients and his veteran troops.