me was Aegina,
before me Megara; on my right hand the Piraeus, on my left hand Corinth;
towns all of them that were once at the very height of prosperity, but
now lie ruined and desolate before our eyes. I began thus to reflect:
'Strange! do we, poor creatures of a day, bear it ill if one of us
perish of disease, or are slain with the sword, we whose life is bound
to be short, while the dead bodies of so many lie here inclosed within
so small a compass?"

But I am anticipating. When Cicero was in exile the republic had yet
some years to live; and there were hopes that it might survive
altogether. The exile's prospects, too, began to brighten. Caesar had
reached for the present the height of his ambition, and was busy with
his province of Gaul. Pompey had quarreled with Clodius, whom he found
to be utterly unmanageable. And Cicero's friend, one Milo, of whom I
shall have to say more hereafter, being the most active of them all,
never ceased to agitate for his recall. It would be tedious to recall
all the vicissitudes of the struggle. As early as May the Senate passed
a resolution repealing the decree of banishment, the news of it having
caused an outburst of joy in the city. Accius' drama of "Telamon" was
being acted at the time, and the audience applauded each senator as he
entered the Senate, and rose from their places to greet the consul as he
came in. But the enthusiasm rose to its height when the actor who was
playing the part of Telamon (whose banishment from his country formed
part of the action of the drama) declaimed with significant emphasis the
following lines--

What! he--the man who still with steadfast heart
Strove for his country, who in perilous days
Spared neither life nor fortune, and bestowed
Most help when most she needed; who surpassed
In wit all other men. Father of Gods,
_His_ house--yea, _his_!--I saw devoured by fire;
And ye, ungrateful, foolish, without thought
Of all wherein he served you, could endure
To see him banished; yea, and to this hour
Suffer that he prolong an exile's day.

Still obstacle after obstacle was interposed, and it was not till the
fourth of August that the decree passed through all its stages and
became finally law. Cicero, who had been waiting at the point of Greece
nearest to Italy, to take the earliest opportunity of returning, had
been informed by his friends that he might now safely embark. He sailed
accordingly on the very day when