Returning to Rome in December 49 BCE, Caesar left Quintus Cassius Longinus in command of Spain and had praetor Marcus Aemilius Lepidus appoint him dictator. As dictator, he conducted elections for the consulship of 48 BCE before using the dictatorial powers to pass laws recalling from exile those condemned by Pompey's courts in 52 BCE, excepting Titus Annius Milo, and restoring the political rights of the children of victims of the Sullan proscriptions. Holding the dictatorship would have been the only way to avoid giving up his imperium, legions, provincia, and right to triumph while within the pomerium. Standing in the same elections he conducted, he won a second term as consul with Publius Servilius Vatia Isauricus as his colleague. He resigned the dictatorship after eleven days. Caesar then renewed his pursuit of Pompey across the Adriatic.