Cicero re-entered Rome on the eve of the Nones of September (the 15th of August, 697), in the midst of the warmest demonstrations of joy. The Senate had thus at last triumphed over the factious opposition of Clodius; but it was not without great efforts, nor without frequently having had recourse on its own side to violence and arbitrary acts. [Sidenote: Pompey is charged with the Supplying of Food.] III. From the first moment of his return, Cicero gave all his care to augmenting the influence of Pompey and reconciling him with the Senate. The famine under which Italy suffered that year furnished him with the occasion. The populace rose suddenly, hurried first to a theatre, where games were celebrating, and afterwards to the Capitol, uttering threats of death and fire against the Senate, to which they attributed the public distress.[589] Before this, in July, at the time of the Apollinarian games,[590] a riot had occurred from the same motive. Cicero, by his persuasive eloquence, calmed the irritated mob, and proposed to entrust to Pompey the care of provisioning, and to confer upon him for five years proconsular powers in Italy and out of Italy.[591] The senators, in their terror, adopted this measure immediately. It was, as at the time of the war of the pirates, to give to one man an excessive power _over all the earth_, according to the words of the decree. Fifteen lieutenants were associated with him, of whom Cicero was one.[592] But the creation of this new office did not put an end to the discontent of the multitude. Clodius tried to persuade the people that the famine was fictitious, and that the Senate had created it, in order to have a pretext for making Pompey master over everything.[593] He overlooked no occasion for stirring up troubles. Although the Senate had given Cicero an indemnity of more than two millions of sestertii,[594] and decided that his house should be rebuilt in the same place, Clodius, who sought to prevent the rebuilding of it, came several times to blows with Milo, in struggles which resembled regular battles, their adherents carrying bucklers and swords. Every day witnessed a riot in the streets. Milo swore he would kill Clodius, and Cicero confessed at a later period that the victim and the arm which was to strike were pointed out beforehand.[595] [Sidenote: Festivals to commemorate Cæsar’s Victories.] IV. It was towards the end of the year 697 that the news of Cæsar’s prodigious successes against the Belgæ reached Rome; they excited there the warmest enthusiasm. As soon as the Senate was informed of them, it voted fifteen days of thanksgiving to celebrate them.[596] This number of days had never before been accorded to anybody. Marius had obtained five, and Pompey, when he had vanquished Mithridates, only ten. The decree of the Senate was expressed in more flattering terms than had ever been used for any general. Cicero himself took part in obtaining this high testimony of public gratitude.[597]