Something Julius Exsuperantius wrote suggests that Lepidus probably wanted to restore the land confiscated both from the Italians and with the proscriptions. He wrote that "Lepidus gathered together the dispossessed, whose land had been taken over by Sulla after his victory to make new colonies for his soldiers, and also the children of the proscribed. In this way he collected a large army ..." He also wrote that Lepidus "also made himself popular with the common people, as the defender of the people's freedom, by bestowing many gifts on them, both publicly and individually."