the social life of Rome. All Dolabella's profligacy was forgotten and forgiven, and Cicero remained on friendly terms with him,* his chief matter of concern being how to extract Tullia's dowry from such an impecunious person.†

But the most interesting part of Dolabella's career dates from his return to Rome from Spain; and accordingly, the history of his later life may better be postponed to another volume.

*For example, he wrote him a most merry letter, Fam. ix. 10 (537), in January, 709 (45) cp. also Fam. vi. 11, 1.

† Att. xii. 8 (501); Fam. vi. 18, 5 (534) cp. Dolabellae àrioía, Att. xiv. 19, 1.

302. To Mescinius Rufus. Cicero was before Rome from the 4th to the 17th (cp. § 2).

303. Cicero left Rome the day after Pompey left. Pompey left on the 17th (365, 4). 304. The desertion of Labienus from Caesar is a mere rumour in this letter: it is afterwards confirmed in 305, 5; 307, 1. The generally excited tone of 304 points to the departure of the senators from Rome as of quite recent occurrence. 305. Cicero probably saw the consul Lentulus the day before writing this letter (§ 2).

307. Written on the same day as 309, as the accounts of Labienus and Piso in both letters are similar.

308. Obviously written very soon after 307. It may perhaps be regarded as a postscript.

310. Cicero reached Capua early that day (311, 2).

313. The distance from Capua to Formiae was over forty miles. Cicero probably took two days on the journey: cp. 316, 318.

314. Q. Cicero to Tiro.

Probably written about the end of January: cp. with 312, 6.

* When no note is appended to a letter the date of that letter can be fixed from the given in the last column of the Table.

In drawing up these notes we have to express obligations to Sternkopf (Quaestiones chronologicae, &c., Marburg, 1884), Ziehen (Ephemerides Tullianae, Budapesth, 1887), Schiche (Zu Cicero's Briefen an Atticus II., Berlin, 1883), and especially to 0. E. Schmidt (Der Briefwechsel des M. Tullius Cicero, Leipzig, 1893). The ingenuity of this latter scholar in historical matters is very great, and can only be equalled by his learning. If we had had the advantage of his guidance when originally arranging the order of the letters that arrangement would have been much improved: cp. notes to 474, 481, 489, 502, 531, 534.

317. Written in the afternoon of the 3rd: cp. Ecce tibi III. Non, &c. 320. Written before 321, as it says nothing definitely about the news from Picenum. 321. Probably written on the morning of the 10th (§ 1), after the arrival of Philotimus on the previous evening. It was certainly written before the 11th, on which day Cassius received dissimilar news from Picenum.

322. Pompey to Cicero. Written immediately after the arrival of Fabius, on the 10th. Cicero received this letter on the 15th (327, 1). It was doubtless a postscript, written by Pompey himself, to a long letter dictated to a secretary relating in detail the affairs in Picenum.

323. Probably written the day after the receipt of the letters to Cassius.

324. After the despatch of the litterae tristes Cephalio arrived with letters from Rome. To these Cicero replied at once.

325. Pompey to Domitius. Pompey heard from correspondents at Corfinium that Domitius had not fulfilled his promise to march out of Corfinium on the 9th (cp. 322, 1); therefore their letters cannot have been sent earlier than the morning of the 10th [Corfinium to Luceria, through Beneventum, about 130 miles]. It would take at least two days to reach Pompey at Luceria. Therefore this letter was written about the 11th or 12th (Schmidt, p. 136).'

326. § 1, hoc biduo appears to point to two days after the last letter.

327. Cicero to Pompey. Cicero wrote at once (328, 2) after receipt on the 15th (327, 1) of 322.

328. Cicero promises to send Pompey's letter to-morrow' (§ 1); he does so on the 17th (332, 4). This letter is subsequent to 327, for in 327 he has not decided to go to Luceria; in 328, 4, he has decided to go.

329-330. Pompey to Domitius. Pompey received the letter from Domitius, probably written on the 14th (cp. note to 325) on the 16th (§ 1). Pompey replied immediately, for on the 17th (330, 1) another letter from Domitius is brought, to which Pompey replies in 330.

331. Pompey to the Consuls. On receipt of news of the blockade of Corfinium, received on the 17th, Pompey sent orders to the Consuls to concentrate all forces into one place.' This one place' was really Brundisium, not Corfinium, as was generally thought: cp. p. xxvi.

333. Cicero hears of the letter of Domitius of the 14th, which arrived via Luceria. (Corfinium to Luceria about 130 miles, Luceria to Cales about 80). Therefore Cicero could not have received this before the morning of the 19th.

336. Dionysius came in the evening. After his interview with Cicero, the latter at once sent a special messenger post-haste to Rome, to recover the vehement letter which he had written to Dionysius. If he had not sent at once Dionysius would have received the letter on his return.

337. Pompey's order of the 17th (331) to the Consuls at Capua probably took some time to get into general circulation. Hence it did not reach Formiae till the 22nd.

338-340. These letters were written in this order, as may be seen by the gradual disappearance of Cicero's expectations that Pompey would relieve Domitius, 337, 3. Pompey will be a great terror to Caesar, 338, 1. If I am not mistaken, he will abandon Domitius, 339, 2. He has abandoned him, and Domitius has capitulated. 340 is dated (§ 4).

341-349. The date of 350 is March 3rd (§ 1); that of 352 March 4th (§ 2). Now Cicero wrote to Atticus every day (345, 1; 349, 1). Therefore 341, 342, 345, 348, 349 fill up the five days from February 26th to March 2nd.

343. Cicero to Pompey. Pompey's letter was received on the 27th (§ 4). It was probably answered at once, as he encloses it in 342 to Atticus on the 27th.

344. Caelius to Cicero. News of the capture of Corfinium had reached Caelius at Intimelium. He anticipates that Caesar has driven Pompey out of Italy, unless there is a blockade of Brundisium (§ 1). It would take Caesar twelve days to reach Brundisium from Corfinium, even marching quickly. So that perhaps this letter was written early in March. But writing at the end of February the sanguine Caelius might have supposed that Pompey would have sailed for Greece as soon as ever he learned that Caesar was marching on Brundisium. 346. Balbus to Cicero. Cicero saw young Balbus on the 24th (340, 4). On the same day he wrote to the elder Balbus about that interview. 346 is the answer to that letter of Cicero's. Possibly it was written on the 26th. From Formiae to Rome was somewhat less than two days' journey.

347. Caesar to Balbus and Oppius. Written somewhere on the journey from Corfinium to Brundisium. We know that Caesar was at Arpi on March 1st (358, 2). The news of the capture of Corfinium could have reached Rome on February 23rd, and an immediate reply could have caught up Caesar at Arpi. But it is quite possible that this letter was written later than March 1st, from some station between Arpi and Brundisium.

350. § 1. It answers (§ 3) a letter of Atticus written from Rome on the 1st.

351. Balbus and Oppius to Cicero. Cicero appears to have written to Balbus on the 1st (probably in reply to 346), asking his advice as to what course of action he should pursue, and this is the guarded reply of Caesar's agents.

354. Balbus to Cicero. Written at once on receipt of 347 from Caesar.

356. On the morning of the 7th Cicero says (355) that he is expecting a longer letter from Atticus. That longer letter arrived later on the 7th (356, 1, 3), and was dated the 4th (365, 9 compared with 356, 2). Probably 356 was written on the next morning.

357. Caesar to Cicero. This letter was brought by Furnius, and reached Cicero at Formiae on the 11th (360, 6). Accordingly the date which we have given is wrong by about three days, and the 5th would be more accurate; for Caesar was very near Brundisium on the 7th or 8th (he reached it on the 9th), and a letter despatched from so far south could not possibly have reached Formiae on the 11th.

359-363. To begin with 363. It was plainly written immediately on receipt of Atticus's letter on the 14th (§ 1). Also, as Schmidt (p. 148) points out, it says (§ 2) that the fever-day of Atticus was yesterday.' That was the 13th, for Atticus had fever every fourth day (337, 3). The 7th of March was one of those days (355, 1), the 10th would be the next, and the 13th the next. Secondly, as regards 360—on the 13th (364, 2, cp. 1) Atticus wrote that Clodia exaggerated the details in her account of the departure of the Pompeians from Brundisium. That information of Clodia's was given to Atticus by Cicero in 360, 3; therefore that letter was probably written two days previously, i.e. the 11th. 359 was written before 360, as the former says that there is no news from Brundisium (§ 3). 361 follows 359 and 360, for-1. On the 9th and 10th 358 and 359 were written, and there is nothing to lead us to believe that a second letter was written on either of these days. 2. The éoes plainly point to Cicero's belief that the departure of Pompey was already an accomplished fact. Information leading him to this belief Cicero received on the 11th. 361, then, is probably the letter written on the 12th, which Cicero intended to give to a strange letter-carrier (361, 4); but that letter-carrier did not start at all on the 12th (362, 1). This is confirmed by the fact that Cicero says (361, 4) that if the letter-carrier went at the normal rate (recte) he would arrive in Rome on Atticus's fever-day, i.e. the 13th. Finally, for 362, the 13th is left, and that date suits admirably (§ 1), as we have seen. Also the tenor of 362 is much the same as that of 361; both letters are full of deliberations and questionings. 364. § 4, data Liberalibus.

365.1, ad tuas omnes rescripseram (i.e. 364) pridie.

366. Cicero to Caesar. Cicero received the letter of Lentulus referred to in 367, 1, on

the 19th; for on the 18th he tells Atticus (365, 1) that there is no news; therefore, probably on the 19th or 20th he wrote the letter to Caesar which he forwarded to Atticus on the 20th.