Quintus Lutatius Catulus
The Senate passed a Consultum Ultimum (the Ultimate Decree) which called on the interrex Appius Claudius and the proconsul Quintus Lutatius Catulus to take necessary measures to preserve public safety. Catulus and Claudius persuaded Pompey, who had several legions' worth of veterans in Picenum (in the northeast of Italy) ready to take up arms at his command, to join their cause. Pompey, invested as a legate with propraetorial powers, quickly recruited an army from among his veterans and threatened Lepidus, who had marched his army to Rome, from the rear. Pompey penned up Marcus Junius Brutus, one of Lepidus's lieutenants, in Mutina.