on account of his sharp tongue,'* and the low-born Publilius Syrus was awarded the prize. It was perhaps shortly after this that, in writing to Cornificius,† Cicero declares that he has grown so callous, that he can tolerate such tyrannical indignities. He is, however, still full of admiration for Caesar personally, and throws all the blame of such actions on the necessities of Caesar's position. He considers, as before, that the wretched state of affairs at Rome is due, not to the fault of the conqueror, 'nothing could be more moderate than he is, but to the victory itself, which in civil war is always outrageous (insolens).' About November 26th Cicero spoke in Caesar's house,§ advocating the restoration of Ligarius. Caesar refused courteously, stating apparently that he would hold a formal trial of Ligarius in the Forum. Allowing the due interval of a trinundinum, the trial of Ligarius, at which Cicero delivered the extant speech Pro Ligario, must have taken place some time about the middle or latter end of the first intercalary month.|| Soon after this, probably about the beginning of the second intercalary month, Caesar left for Spain. Before leaving he had celebration occurred on the days which corresponded to July 20th to 30th of subsequent years: see Mommsen in C. I. L. i., p. 397, and Dict. Antiq. s. v. LUDI VICTORIAE CAESARIS. *Teuffel (ed. Schwabe), §§ 192-3. † Fam. xii. 18, 2. In drawing up the list of letters of the year 708 (46) we omitted, perhaps erroneously, Fam. xii. 18 and 19. We did so, as we thought that the games at which Laberius appeared were held in 709 (45), and in this we followed the lead of such eminent scholars as Teuffel (ed. Schwabe), §§ 192-3; Wordsworth (Fragments and Specimens, p. 604); and Watson (ed. 4), p. 486. But there does not appear to be any objection to supposing that Laberius appeared upon the stage in 708 (46). Further, Caesar was absent in Spain in 709 (45), and it is unlikely that he would have determined to humiliate Laberius in games at which he himself was not present. Lastly, by supposing that the games in question were those of 708 (46), we obtain a very satisfactory reason for the despair which fell upon Cicero so soon after the pardon of Marcellus: cp. Fam. iv. 4, 2 (495); vi. 6, 3 (488). Fam. xii. 18, 2; iv. 4, 2 (495). § This passage, Fam. vi. 14, 2 (498), is interesting, as showing that Caesar was now virtually monarch, and his house his court: cp. especially atque omnem adeundi et conveniendi illius indignitatem et molestiam pertulissem. In this year 708 (46), in order to bring the calendar into accord with the actual seasons, Caesar added two intercalary months of 29 and 28 days between November and December, and also ten days; these ten days it is supposed were added to the second intercalary month, so that the latter really had 38 days. commissioned his Master of the Horse, M. Lepidus, consul for the year 708 (46), to procure his election as consul without colleague for 709 (45). Tribunes of the people and plebeian aediles appear to have been chosen for 709 (45), but no other magistrates were elected before Caesar left Rome. Cicero asks Atticus to find out from his father-in-law Pilius, whether Caesar is going to hold the elections in the Field of Fennel (i.e. in Spain), or in the Field of Mars. Caesar did not hold any elections at all, either in the Field of Fennel or in the Field of Mars, but left the administration of Rome in the hands of eight (or six) praefecti urbis,† with propraetorian powers, all nominally subject to Lepidus. The real administration, however, at least in all civil matters, was in the hands of Balbus and Oppius. Any hope which Cicero may have entertained that the government of the Senate was likely to be restored must have now utterly disappeared. But it was a great relief to Cicero that the 'prefect of morals,' as he calls Caesar, had departed,§ and he was able to leave Rome. In the first instance he went to Tusculum, and made what arrangements he could in reference to the separation of Dolabella and Tullia. He published his Cato, and made preparations for publishing his Orator. He was apparently in some doubt whether to permit young Cicero to accompany Dolabella to Spain and serve in Caesar's army there, or to send him to the university at Athens; and we have an interesting sketch of a conversation between father and son on the point.** He finally decided to send him to the university.†† Towards the end of the second intercalary month Cicero went on a short tour of a few weeks round his estates in Campania, where he saw Paetus and M. Att. xii. 8, 1 (501). Dio Cass. xliii. 28, Toλiavóμois Ŏктw. The very essence of a praefectus is that he is not an independent magistrate. Cp. Fam. vi. 8, 1 (527), quod omnibus rebus perspexeram quae Balbus et Oppius absente Caesare egissent ea solere illi rata esse. Cp. Fam. ix. 15, 5 (481), quamdiu hic erit noster hic praefectus moribus parebo auctoritati tuae, i.e. to stay in Rome. Att. xii. 8 (501). ** Att. xii. 7, 1 (500). Marius, and returned to Rome about the beginning of December.* The chief subject of his deliberations now was whom he should take as his second wife. The energetic Postumia,† wife of Servius Sulpicius, appears to have exerted herself in this matter. After due consideration had been bestowed on the daughter of Pompey and another lady, of whom Cicero says that he never saw anything uglier' (foedius), he finally married, solely for her money, his rich ward Publilia, who was a mere child, and could not possibly be a suitable companion for the sexagenarian statesman and philosopher. During December and the early part of January Cicero was in Rome, on account of the delicate health of Tullia.‡ About the middle of January she bore a son, who is called Lentulus. As soon as she was able to move Cicero brought her down to Tusculum. There early in February she died. This was perhaps the severest blow which Cicero had as yet experienced in his long and chequered life. But the account of his grief and prostration at this loss must be postponed to another volume. *Att. xii. 1 (505). + Att. xii. 11 (502). Fam. vi. 18, 5 (534). II. CICERO'S CORRESPONDENTS. 1. GAIUS TREBONIUS. Gaius Trebonius was quaestor in 694 (60), and supported the consuls Afranius and Metellus Scipio in opposing the tribune Herennius, who had brought forward a law on the subject of the transference of Clodius to the plebeians.* In 699 (55) he was tribune, and in the interests of the triumvirs proposed the wellknown Trebonian law, that Syria should be given to Cassius, and the Two Spains to Pompey.† In return, probably for this good service, Caesar made him one of his legati in Gaul, and from 700 (54) to 705 (49) he appears to have served in the army there.‡ At the outbreak of the Civil War he remained in the province, and probably had some conflicts with the Pompeian Afranius in the Pyrenees, and certainly besieged Massilia from the land side.§ In 706 (48) he was praetor urbanus, and opposed with firmness and judgment the wild schemes of Caelius. Caesar thus formed a high opinion of Trebonius; and accordingly Cicero, when at Brundisium, urged Atticus to ask Trebonius to write to Caesar, saying that Cicero's whole conduct at that time was regulated in accordance with his advice. In 707 (47) Caesar sent him into Farther Spain as successor to Q. Cassius Longinus, who had mismanaged Caesar's cause grievously in that province.** Just before starting he sent Cicero a collection he had made of Ciceroniana.' This delicate flattery called forth an excellent letter from Cicero.†† After Trebonius had been some time in Spain, the Pompeian party, under Q. Aponius and T. Quintius Scapula, drove him out of the country; but he did not on that account forfeit the good. opinion of Caesar, for in October, 709 (45), he was appointed Fam. xv. 21, 2 (450). † Cp. vol. iii., p. lxi. Caes. B. G. v. 17, 24; vi. 33; vii. 11; viii. 6, 46, 54. § Att. viii. 3, 7 (333); Caes. B. C. i. 36 fin. Dio Cass. xlii. 22, 2, and vol. III., p. lvii. Att. xi. 6, 3 (418). **Bell. Alex. 48-64. tt Fam. xv. 21 (450). consul, and the province of Asia decreed to him for the following year.* But it would appear that already the plot against Caesar had been set on foot, and that Trebonius was privy to it. In the beginning of 709 (45) Antony and Trebonius met at Narbo, and the latter sounded Antony on the subject of the conspiracy. Antony refused to have any connexion with the plot, but did not disclose it to Caesar. On the Ides of March the duty assigned to Trebonius was to keep Antony away from the actual scene of the murder.‡ Shortly after the murder Trebonius repaired secretly to his province.§ During his journey he wrote in May an interesting letter to Cicero from Athens. It tells that he had met young Cicero, who was studying at the university there, and that, as the young man had expressed a wish to see Asia, he had asked him to come on a visit, and to bring his tutor Cratippus along with him, so that you must not think that he is going to have a holiday from his books in Asia.' Trebonius also sent Cicero some satirical verses against Antony, written in rather 'broad' language in the style of Lucilius, which he had composed during some leisure hours on ship-board. He helped Brutus and Cassius with money when they went to their provinces, and he would doubtless have been a strong support to the republican cause, but he was treacherously murdered by Dolabella at Smyrna in February, 711 (43).** Cicero wrote to Trebonius in May, 710 (44), on the general state of politics (Fam. xv. 20). We have a third extant letter to him, written about the beginning of February, 711 (43), which, however, cannot have reached him (Fam. x. 28). This is the letter which begins with the celebrated words Quam vellem ad illas pulcherrimas epulas me Idibus Martiis invitasses: reliquiarum nihil haberemus. *Dio xliii. 46, 2; Appian, B. C. iii. 2. Cic. Phil. ii. 34; Plut. Ant. 13. Cic. Phil. 1. c., xiii. 22. In Plut. Caes. 66 this duty is said to have been undertaken by Brutus Albinus, i.e. Decimus Brutus; in Plut. Ant. 13 by 'some of the conspirators.' § Att. xiv. 10. || Fam. xii. 16, 2, 3. **Cic. Phil. xi. 1-8; Fam. xii. 12, 1; 14, 5; 15, 4. ¶ Dio xlvii. 21, 3; 26, 1. |