To this circumstance perhaps, as well as to his own merits, Hortensius may have been indebted for much of his success. Many of his clients were the governors of provinces which they were accused of having plundered. Such men were sure to find themselves brought before a friendly, not to say a corrupt, tribunal, and Hortensius, according to Cicero was not ashamed to avail himself of this advantage. Having served during two campaigns (in 90 and 89 BC) in the Social War, he served as "quaestor" in 81, "aedile" in 75, "praetor" in 72, and "consul" in 69. In the year before his consulship he came into collision with Cicero in the case of Gaius Verres, and from that time his supremacy at the bar was lost.