For its part, the Senatorial optimates chose one of the consuls for eighty seven BC, Lucius Cornelius Sulla, a patrician and once Marius's trusted lieutenant.
On the other side were the Senatorial optimates, allied with the assassins of Caesar or the so-called republicans, led by the silver-tongued old statesman Cicero.
He came from an undistinguished equestrian family, equestrian referring to the class of Roman society that ranked below senatorial in the Roman social hierarchy.
Some also blame an unwritten rule of senatorial courtesy, which allows senators to block nominees who live in their home county from being considered, without giving a reason.