ABSTRACT
Meanwhile at Rome the year 70 had ended unfavourably for the popular party. Pompey had been so much disconcerted and exasperated by the intrigues of Crassus that he had given up the idea of replacing Lucullus and declared that at the end of his Consulship he would retire into private life without accepting a province. Crassus, delighted to have interfered with Pompey's calculations, had also preferred to stay at Rome. The Conservatives were somewhat reassured by Pompey's discomfiture, more particularly as nearly all the offices were in the hands of their nominees. For the rest, since the defeat of Mithridates, there was peace within the Empire. The only war on hand for the moment was that against the Cretan pirates who, after the defeat of Marcus Antonius, had in vain sent ambassadors to Rome to sue for peace.
