was Roman public property or could be declared as such in Greece. He said that Pompey also recovered land in Asia. After winning the Third Mithridatic War Pompey annexed Cilicia Trachea, part of Pontus (both in today's Turkey), and Syria. However, these were annexations, rather than recoveries of territories. Moreover, at the time of the bill the war was still on and Pompey's settlements in Asia were yet to be completed. Sumner points out that by mos maiorum the adjudication and control of the estates in the acquired territories were to rest with Pompey. Hence, here Cicero's statements were contentious and part of effort to purport that Crassus and Caesar wanted to use the bill to prepare for a conflict with Pompey (see below). Interpretations There are various interpretations of the political motivations of this agrarian bill among various historians. 1) The most common one is that Crassus and Caesar sought to seize power through a coup d’ état against Pompey and/or the senate or that they were after command in Egypt to enable them to fight Pompey. 2) Crassus wanted to control the allotment of land so that he would have a strong bargaining position when Pompey came back from the war and sought land for his veterans (soldiers were entitled to a grant of a plot of land on their discharge); 3) The bill was a bribery scheme to provide profits for the merchants and a new tax source for the publicani (these were private tax collectors, the republican state tendered this collection to private tax collectors who used their position to line their pockets and for extortion); 4) The bill was never meant to be passed and served to show up Cicero in his true colours, as an optimate-lover, rather than consul in favour of the people and to heighten the conflict between the plebeians and the senate. 5) The purpose of the bill was genuinely to give land to the landless poor. According to this view, this was intended to rid Rome of these people who were seen as idle and dangerous and improve the security of the city. Conspiracy theories are unlikely and based on the rhetoric of Cicero and on the remarks of Plutarch and Suetonius. These two later writers had pro-aristocracy views and always portrayed the plebeian tribunes in a negative light. As for Cicero's speeches, their rhetoric appears to be designed to