This relaxation of the social bonds caused inevitably the dispersion of all the forces, the union of which would have been so useful to the public good. It was no sooner agreed, in a moment of danger, to give to one man the authority necessary to restore order and tranquillity, than, at the same moment, everybody united to attack and degrade him, as if each were afraid of his own work. Cicero has hardly returned from exile, when the friends who have recalled him become jealous of his influence; they see with pleasure a certain degree of coldness arise between Pompey and him, and secretly support the intrigues of Clodius.[625] Pompey, amid the famine and the public agitation, is hardly invested with new powers, before the Senate on one side, and the popular faction on the other, plot together to ruin his credit: by clever intrigues, they awaken the old hatred between him and Crassus. Pompey believed, or pretended to believe, that there was a conspiracy against his life. He would no longer attend the Senate, unless the session were held close to his residence, he seemed to think it so dangerous to pass through the town.[626] “Clodius,” he said, “seeks to assassinate me. Crassus pays him, and Cato encourages him. All the talkers, Curio, Bibulus, all my enemies excite him against me. The populace, who love the tattle of the tribune, have almost abandoned me; the nobility is hostile to me; the Senate is unjust towards me; the youth is entirely perverted.” He added that he would take his precautions, and that he would surround himself with people from the country.[627] Nobody was safe from the most odious imputations. Caius Cato accused the Consul P. Lentulus of having assisted Ptolemy with the means of quitting Rome clandestinely.[628] M. Cato was exasperated against everybody. Lastly, an implacable party never ceased manifesting, by its motions, without result, it is true, its rancour and animosity against the proconsul of Gaul. Towards the spring of 698, L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, the brother-in-law of Cato, whose sister Porcia he had espoused, and who had enriched himself with the spoils of the victims of Sylla, proposed to deprive him of his command.[629] Others renewed the proposal to put an end to the distribution of the lands of the Campania, and revived the opposition to the Julian laws.[630] But Cicero, at the request of Pompey, obtained the adjournment of this question to the month of May.[631] He was, indeed, himself perplexed on this question, and confessed that he had no very clear views upon it.[632] [Sidenote: The Interview at Lucca.]