Cicero returned from banishment an altered man. Though his return had been glorious, he saw that his position was entirely changed, and he was forced to yield to a power which he no longer dared to resist. He even lent his support to the Triumvirs, and praised in public those proceedings which he had once openly and loudly condemned. Meantime the power of Pompey had been shaken at Rome. A misunderstanding had sprung up between him and Crassus, and Cato and the other leaders of the aristocracy attacked him with the utmost vehemence. The Senate began to entertain hopes of recovering their power. They determined to support L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, who, in B.C. 56, had become a candidate for the Consulship for the following year, and who threatened to deprive Caesar of his provinces and armies. Under these circumstances Caesar invited Pompey and Crassus to meet him at Luca (_Lucca_) in the spring of B.C. 56. He reconciled them to each other, and arranged that they were to be Consuls for the next year, and obtain provinces and armies, while he himself was to have his government prolonged for another five years, and to receive pay for his troops. On their return to Rome, Pompey and Crassus became candidates for the Consulship; but Domitius Ahenobarbus, supported by Cato and the aristocracy, offered a most determined opposition. The Consul Lentulus Marcellinus likewise was resolved to use every means to prevent their election; and, finding it impossible to carry their election while Marcellinus was in office, they availed themselves of the veto of two of the Tribunes to prevent the Consular Comitia from being held this year. The elections, therefore, did not take place till the beginning of B.C. 55, under the presidency of an interrex. Even then Ahenobarbus and Cato did not relax in their opposition; and it was not till the armed bands of Pompey and Crassus had cleared the Campus Martius of their adversaries that they were declared Consuls for the second time (B.C. 55).