 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 Circero in this 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.