undermine support for the bill. Cicero tried to give a conspiratorial hue to the bill. He alleged that the architects of the bill were against both Pompey and himself. He said that they hoped to use the powers of the commissioners to allot land to discharged soldiers to take away from Pompey his right to give his veterans land and, through this, the support of his veterans. He added that he was concerned that they would do so during his term as consul to undermine him because they despised him. This is what interpretations 2 and 4 rest on. Cicero repeatedly made his claim about an anti-Pompeian agenda. He said that the commissions would "in the first place take care that Gnaeus [Pompey] should be removed from all power of protecting your [the people's] liberty, from all power to promote, from all commission to watch over, and from all means of protecting your interests [,]" and that they thought it "expedient to oppose Gnaeus [Pompey] as your defence against all defects and wickednesses in the law." He called the commissioners "Ten general against Pompey." Cicero was also at pain to present himself as a consul who stood for the people and not for the aristocrats or the optimantes: "I have been made consul, not by the zeal of the powerful citizens, nor by the preponderating influence of a few men, but by the deliberate judgment of the Roman people, and that, too, in such a way as to be preferred to men of the very highest rank, to avoid, both in this magistracy and throughout my whole life, devoting myself to the interests of the people." He presented himself as a man who stood in opposition against men who pretended to stand in the interests of the people but were in fact a danger to the people (this was a reference to the populares): "For there is a great error abroad, by reason of the treacherous pretences made by some people, who, though they oppose and hinder not only the advantage but even the safety of the people, still endeavour by their speeches to make men believe them zealous for the interests of the people." To further bolster his speeches, Cicero claimed that the Publius Rullus would sell Alexandria and Egypt. In 65 BC there was a proposal to annex Egypt. This was made by the plebeian tribunes. According to