The struggle for the rehabilitation of the tribunes began in 78, when those officials applied to the consuls for legislation on the subject. Even Aemilius Lepidus[2662] declined, as he could see no advantage in the unhampered tribunate.[2663] Though generally in these early years of the Cornelian régime the tribunes were mere puppets of the senate, one of them in 76, L. Sicinius, dared in a contio to plead for the full restoration of their office.[2664] In the following year Q. Opimius, another tribune, continued the struggle, with such success that he secured the passage of the Aurelian law above mentioned.[2665] This measure narrowly escaped annulment, and Opimius after retiring from office was exorbitantly fined on the ground that he had interceded in violation of a Cornelian law.[2666] In the year of the condemnation of Opimius, 74, L. Quinctius, who had risen to the tribunate from the lowest social class, strove energetically for the same object,[2667] though he could effect no more than the maintenance of the Aurelian law. Toward the close of his term, however, he opened battle against the senatorial courts, which had fallen into disfavor because of their corruption.[2668] In 73 the contest was resumed by Licinius Macer the annalist, then tribune of the plebs, who demanded in vain the full restoration of the tribunician power.[2669] In his efforts he had the support of C. Julius Caesar.[2670] The struggle died down as the danger from Spartacus rose; but at the close of the servile war it was a tribune of the plebs, M. Lollius Palicanus, a man of low birth, who in a contio held outside the walls in order that Pompey, a proconsul, might attend, persuaded the latter to commit himself publicly to a definite promise to bring about a repeal of the lex Cornelia de tribunicia potestate.[2671] Inveighing against the corruption of the senatorial courts,[2672] Pompey in the same speech intimated an intention to propose a bill on this subject as well.