her Quintus. A speech which he
made to the people on the passing of the law is not extant; but as there
was hot blood about it in Rome, he took the opportunity of justifying
the appointment of Pompey in the earlier portion of this oration to the
priests. It must be understood that he did not lend his aid toward
giving those greater powers which Pompey was anxious to obtain. His
trust in Pompey had never been a perfect trust since the first days of
the Triumvirate. To Cicero's thinking, both Pompey and Caesar were
conspirators against the Republic. Caesar was the bolder, and therefore
the more dangerous. It might probably come to pass that the services of
Pompey would be needed for restraining Caesar. Pompey naturally belonged
to the "optimates," while Caesar was as naturally a conspirator. But
there never again could come a time in which Cicero would willingly
intrust Pompey with such power as was given to him nine years before by
the Lex Manilia. Nevertheless, he could still say grand things in praise
of Pompey. "To Pompey have been intrusted wars without number, wars most
dangerous to the State, wars by sea and wars by land, wars extraordinary
in their nature. If there be a man who regrets that this has been done,
that man must regret the victories which Rome has won." But his abuse of
Clodius is infinitely stronger than his praise of Pompey. For the
passages in which he alluded to the sister of Clodius I must refer the
reader to the speech itself. It is impossible here to translate them or
to describe them. And these words were spoken before the College of
Priests, of whom nineteen were Consulares! And they were prepared with
such care that Cicero specially boasted of them to Atticus, and declares
that they should be put into the hands of all young orators. Montesquieu
says that the Roman legislators, in establishing their religion, had no
view of using it for the improvement of manners or of morals.[7] The
nature of their rites and ceremonies gives us evidence enough that it
was so. If further testimony were wanting, it might be found in this
address, Ad Pontifices. Cicero himself was a man of singularly clean
life as a Roman nobleman, but, in abusing his enemy, he was restrained
by no sense of what we consider the decency of language.

He argues the question as to his house very well, as he did all
questions. He tells the priests that the whole joy of his restoration
must depend on their decision. Citizens who had h