Caesar began his term as consul by "presenting a moderate and carefully reasoned bill" to purchase land in order to discharge and settle Pompey's soldiers who had returned from the east some years previously. The "Boni", led by Cato, walked out of the Senate "en masse" to prevent it being heard. Caesar took the bill to the Centuriate Assembly, largely made up of ex-soldiers. Large numbers of Pompey's veterans came to Rome to participate in the expected vote. Bibulus lost popularity by treating them with aristocratic contempt, telling them that he did not care what they wanted. Bibulus was able to secure the support of three plebeian tribunes to block the passage of the bill. However, Pompey and Crassus publicly supported Caesar's bill, and the opposition to Bibulus was such that the tribunes were unwilling to exercise their veto. Immediately before the vote Bibulus ordered it suspended for religious reasons. Caesar, who was also pontifex maximus, the most significant religious official in Rome, ignored this and continued with the vote. Bibulus and two of his tribunes mounted the steps of the Temple of Castor and Pollux and attempted to denounce the bill. The crowd turned on him and his entourage, breaking his "fasces" (the symbols of his consulship), pushing him to the ground and pouring feces on him. Getting up, Bibulus uncovered his neck and shouted to the crowd to kill him to end his embarrassment. His fellow senators persuaded him to leave and regroup at a nearby temple, as the assembly proceeded to pass the bill.