Cicero returns to Tusculum and travels to Pompey’s nearby estate, where eight senators gather: Pompey, Cicero, Caesar (recently returned from Spain as quaestor), Palicanus, Afranius, Gabinius, Cornelius (a tribune-elect), and Varro. Tiro takes minutes as Pompey unveils a plan to divide the Mediterranean into 15 zones under legates (commanders of legions), with one supreme commander holding three years of imperium over all coastal territory; he intends to be that commander. Cicero warns of aristocratic resistance to this breach of tradition and advises that Pompey’s name be omitted from the bill, which should specify only “senator of consular rank” (174). During lunch, Tiro accidentally witnesses Caesar having sex with Pompey’s pregnant wife, Mucia; Caesar sees him but says nothing, and Tiro conceals this from Cicero. Later that day, Caesar jokes about buying Tiro from Cicero. Returning home, Cicero speculates that Caesar may be the true author of Pompey’s scheme.

In Rome, Gabinius and Cornelius take office as tribunes and stoke public panic over the pirates; among other security measures, they install beacons along the Tiber, implying that an invasion is imminent. After Saturnalia, Gabinius mounts the rostra (a platform for public speeches) and demands a supreme commander with sweeping powers, 500 warships, and vast forces. Catulus and Hortensius lead opposition in the Senate. Crassus places two tribunes, Trebellius and Roscius, behind him to signal that he has purchased vetoes against the bill. When Caesar speaks in favor of the proposal, called the lex Gabinia, the Senate dissolves into chaos and violence.

Consulting with Pompey and his allies afterward, Pompey recommends that Gabinius put forward Pompey’s name as commander and that Pompey decline. The public outcry to do something about the pirates will force the Senate to act, and Pompey’s apparent lack of interest in the role will only increase his appeal; if necessary, he can also use the promise of legateships to sway stubborn senators. That night, Cicero drafts a speech announcing Pompey’s retirement, which Pompey delivers in the Forum the following day, to great effect.

Over the next two weeks, Cicero works behind the scenes, using persuasion and promises of command posts to win over senators to Pompey’s cause. The key obstacle remains Crassus and his two tribunes, who can veto the lex Gabinia. The day before the vote, Crassus visits Cicero and offers a deal: a shared command for Pompey and himself, with Crassus’s backing for Cicero’s future consulship. Crassus ends with a veiled threat, referencing the murder of the radical populist tribune Tiberius Gracchus.

The threat gives Cicero an idea. He sends Tiro to the National Archive to research the Gracchus case, where he learns that Gracchus, when faced with another tribune’s veto, had the popular assembly vote to remove his colleague from office. Cicero decides to use this obscure and dangerous precedent. At the assembly, Gabinius proposes the bill. When Crassus’s tribune, Trebellius, vetoes it, Gabinius immediately moves to have the people vote Trebellius out of office. After 17 of the 35 tribes vote for his removal, the terrified Trebellius withdraws his veto. Crassus’s second tribune, Roscius, is then shouted down by the crowd, and the lex Gabinia passes unanimously. Pompey returns to a hero’s welcome and, after addressing the Forum, leaves the city to begin his campaign.

The following summer, Cicero is elected praetor, topping the poll and being assigned to the extortion court. Anxious about his lack of a male heir, Cicero betroths his 10-year-old daughter, Tullia, to Frugi; the wedding will not take place for five more years, but the engagement signals Cicero’s hopes to train Frugi as his successor. Meanwhile, Pompey defeats the pirates in just 49 days. His new agent in Rome, the tribune Caius Manilius, proposes the lex Manilia to give Pompey command of the war against Mithradates. Under Pompey’s orders, Cicero delivers his first-ever speech from the rostra in support of the bill, which passes easily but further alienates the aristocracy.

During his praetorship, Cicero presides over the trial of Caius Licinius Macer, a supporter of Crassus. Macer is convicted and dies shortly thereafter, deepening Crassus’s hatred for Cicero. The upcoming consular race becomes more complicated when Antonius Hybrida, a corrupt candidate Cicero supported for praetor largely because he viewed him as no threat to his own career, stages lavish games that make him a serious contender. Cicero is then summoned by Metellus Pius, the pontifex maximus (high priest), who wants Lucius Sergius Catilina, a violent politician, prosecuted for extortion. Cicero realizes with alarm that while a pending case would bar Catilina from the next consular election, an acquittal would force Cicero to run against the dangerous rival in his own campaign the following year.