the best positioned man to handle the annexation of Egypt. Moreover, the 65 BC proposal to annex Egypt occurred during the period of ascendancy of Pompey and followed the Gabinian Law (67 BC), which gave Pompey extraordinary proconsular powers in any province within 50 miles of the Mediterranean Sea to deal with the problem of piracy, and the 66 BC Manilian Law (which Cicero had supported), which gave Pompey the mandate to replace the previous Romans commander in the Third Mithridatic War and gave him supreme command in the last phase of this war. Sumner also notes that the opponents to these two laws were optimates and that Julius Caesar had supported them. The planned coup d' état interpretation of the political motivations behind the bill is based on the idea that Caesar was after the command of Egypt after its annexation. Fate of the bill The bill did not pass the vote. Cicero opposed subsequent proposals for agrarian laws to redistribute land. In 59 BC Julius Caesar managed to pass a law which gave land to 20,000 Roman citizens with more than three children in Campania, in the same area which had been earmarked for redistribution by the bill of Publius Servilius Rullus. Caesar managed to do so thanks to the enormous political power of the First Triumvirate, the informal political alliance Caesar made with Crassus and Pompey. See also Servilia (gens) Notes References Primary Sources Cicero, Three Orations On The Agrarian Law, The Four Against Catiline, The Orations For Rabirius, Murena Sylla, Archias, Flaccus, Scaurus, Etc., Arkose Press, 2015; Plutarch, Parallel Lives, The Live of Crassus, The Complete Collection of Plutarch's Parallel Lives, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2014; ; see accessed June 206 Suetonius, The Lives of Twelve Caesars, Julius Caesar, Penguin Classics; Revised edition, 2007; ; see accessed June 2016 Secondary sources Afzelius, A., Ackerverteilungsgesets des P. Servilius Rullus, Classica et Medievalia 3, 1940 Gelzer, M, Caesar: Politician and Statesman, Harvard University Press; Reprint edition, 1985; Hardy, E. G., Some Problems in Roman History, Some Problems in Roman History: Ten Essays Bearing on the Administrative and Legislative Work Of Julius Caesar, Lawbook Exchange, 2007; Marsh, F. B., Founding of the Roman Empire, HardPress Publishing, 2013; (Original publication, 1927) Mommsen, T., The History of Rome, Dover Books on History, Political and Social Science, Dover Publications, Reprint edition, 2013, Original publication, 1889) Rice Holmes, T., Roman Republic, Vol I,