 Because of his absence from Rome he was not eligible to be a candidate for the election of the decemviri.Cicero portrayed Publius Servilius Rullus as an insignificant figure and alleged that he was a front for unsavoury men he described as the real architects of the bill, as 'machinators' and as the men who had the real power and were to be feared more than Rullus.He claimed that they hoped to become decemviri.