ucullus had returned
to Rome after Metellus left it in B.C. 62.]

[Footnote 699: He returned B.C. 62. The consuls who were elected for
the year B.C. 61, were M. Pupius Piso, who had been a legatus of
Pompeius in Asia, and M. Valerius Messalla. See the Life of Pompeius,
c. 44.]

[Footnote 700: Probably Munatius Rufus, who is mentioned again in c.
36. Drumann (_Porcii_, p. 162) says it was Munatius Plancus.]

[Footnote 701: This was in B.C. 61, at the election of the consuls L.
Afranius and Q. Caecilius Metellus Celer, the consuls of B.C. 60. See
the Life of Pompeius, c. 44.]

[Footnote 702: Caesar returned B.C. 60, and was consul B.C. 59. See the
Life of Caesar, c. 13, 14, for the events alluded to in this 31st
chapter; and the Life of Pompeius, c. 47.]

[Footnote 703: See the Life of Caesar, c. 14.]

[Footnote 704: Numidicus. The story is told in the Life of Marius, c.
29. The matters referred to in this and the following chapter are told
circumstantially by Dion Cassius (38, c. 1-7). See Life of Caesar, c.
14.]

[Footnote 705: L. Calpurnius Piso, the father of Calpurnia the wife of
Caesar, and Aulus Gabinius were consuls B.C. 58. Aulus Gabinius, when
Tribunus Plebis B.C. 67, proposed the law which gave Pompeius the
command against the pirates. The meaning of the obscure allusion at
the end of the chapter, which is literally rendered, may be collected
from the context; and still more plainly from the abuse which Cicero
heaps on Gabinius for his dissolute life after he had been banished in
the consulship of Gabinius (Drumann, _Gabinii_, p. 60).]

[Footnote 706: This Ptolemaeus, the brother of Ptolemaeus Auletes, King
of Egypt, was now in possession of Cyprus, and the mission of Cato,
which could not be to his taste, was to take possession of the island
for the Romans. When Clodius had been made prisoner by the pirates
nine years before, Ptolemaeus was asked to contribute to his ransom but
he only sent two talents, for which ill-timed saving he was mulcted in
his whole kingdom by this unprincipled tribune (Drumann, _Claudii_, p.
263).]

[Footnote 707: He is called Caninius in the Life of Brutus, c. 3.]

[Footnote 708: The feeble king had not spirit to attempt a resistance,
which indeed would have been useless. He put an end to himself by
poison (c. 36), and the Romans took the island. A more unjustifiable
act of aggression than the occupation of Cyprus, hardly occurs even in
the history of Rome.]

[Footnote