bruary to May, deciding questions that had been there
brought before him from all parts of his province except Cilicia proper.
The cities which had been ground down by debt have been enabled to free
themselves, and then to live under their own laws. This he has done by
taking nothing from them for his own expenses--not a farthing. It is
marvellous to see how the municipalities have sprung again into life
under this treatment. "He has been enabled by this to carry on justice
without obstruction and without severity. Everybody has been allowed
approach to him--a custom which has been unknown in the provinces. There
has been no back-stairs influence. He has walked openly in his own
courts, as he used to do when a candidate at home. All this has been
grateful to the people, and much esteemed; nor has it been too laborious
to himself, as he had learned the way of it in his former life." It was
thus that Cicero governed Cilicia.

There are further letters to Appius and Caelius, written from various
parts of the province, which cannot fail to displease us because we feel
that Cicero is endeavoring to curry favor. He wishes to stand well with
those who might otherwise turn against him on his reappearance in Rome.
He is afraid lest Appius should be his enemy and lest Pompey should not
be his friend. The practice of justice and of virtue would, he knew,
have much less effect in Rome than the friendship and enmity of such
men. But to Atticus he bursts out into honest passion against Brutus.
Brutus had recommended to him one Gavius, whom, to oblige Brutus, he
appointed to some office. Gavius was greedy, and insolent when his greed
was not satisfied. "You have made me a prefect," said Gavius; "where am
I to go for my rations?" Cicero tells him that as he has done no work he
will get no pay; whereupon Gavius, quite unaccustomed to such treatment,
goes off in a huff. "If Brutus can be stirred by the anger of such a
knave as this," he says to Atticus, "you may love him, if you will,
yourself; you will not find me a rival for his friendship."[109] Brutus,
however, became a favorite with Cicero, because he had devoted himself
to literature. In judging these two men we should not lean too heavily
on Brutus, because he did no worse than his neighbors. But then, how are
we to judge of Cicero?

In the latter months of his government there began a new trouble, in
which it is difficult to sympathize with him, because we are unable to
produce