In 89 BC, Gellius was a senior legate under Pompeius Strabo, beginning a long association with that family that would continue with Strabo’s son, Pompeius Magnus So much so that when he achieved the consulate in 72 BC, he was noted as a Pompeian consul and pushed through a bill to validate grants of citizenship by Pompey in Hispania. He and his colleague also ensured that no Roman citizen in the provinces could be tried in absentia on a capital charge – an attempt to restrict the ravages of Gaius Verres in Sicily.