 A politically ambitious "privatus" (private citizen) might postpone his deceased father's "munus" to the election season, when a generous show might drum up votes; those in power and those seeking it needed the support of the plebeians and their tribunes, whose votes might be won with the mere promise of an exceptionally good show.Sulla, during his term as praetor, showed his usual acumen in breaking his own sumptuary laws to give the most lavish "munus" yet seen in Rome, on occasion of his wife's funeral.In the closing years of the politically and socially unstable Late Republic, any aristocratic owner of gladiators had political muscle at his disposal.