ure between you. And so those ties which have been broken will
be restored, and ours which have been so religiously preserved will
retain all their old inviolability.

At Rome I find politics in a shaky condition; everything is
unsatisfactory and foreboding change. For I have no doubt you have been
told that our friends, the equites, are all but alienated from the
senate. Their first grievance was the promulgation of a bill on the
authority of the senate for the trial of such as had taken bribes for
giving a verdict. I happened not to be in the house when that decree was
passed, but when I found that the equestrian order was indignant at it,
and yet refrained from openly saying so, I remonstrated with the
senate, as I thought, in very impressive language, and was very weighty
and eloquent considering the unsatisfactory nature of my cause. But here
is another piece of almost intolerable coolness on the part of the
equites, which I have not only submitted to, but have even put in as
good a light as possible! The companies which had contracted with the
censors for Asia complained that in the heat of the competition they had
taken the contract at an excessive price; they demanded that the
contract should be annulled. I led in their support, or rather, I was
second, for it was Crassus who induced them to venture on this demand.
The case is scandalous, the demand a disgraceful one, and a confession
of rash speculation. Yet there was a very great risk that, if they got
no concession, they would be completely alienated from the senate. Here
again I came to the rescue more than anyone else, and secured them a
full and very friendly house, in which I, on the 1st and 2nd of
December, delivered long speeches on the dignity and harmony of the two
orders. The business is not yet settled, but the favourable feeling of
the senate has been made manifest: for no one had spoken against it
except the consul-designate, Metellus; while our hero Cato had still to
speak, the shortness of the day having prevented his turn being reached.
Thus I, in the maintenance of my steady policy, preserve to the best of
my ability that harmony of the orders which was originally my joiner's
work; but since it all now seems in such a crazy condition, I am
constructing what I may call a road towards the maintenance of our
power, a safe one I hope, which I cannot fully describe to you in a
letter, but of which I will nevertheless give you a hint. _I cultivate
c