--while I nevertheless
satisfied the people and Pompey (for I wanted to do that also) by the
purchase clause; for, if that was put on a sound footing, I thought that
two advantages would accrue--the dregs might be drawn from the city, and
the deserted portions of Italy be repeopled. But this whole business was
interrupted by the war, and has cooled off. Metellus is an exceedingly
good consul, and much attached to me. That other one is such a ninny
that he clearly doesn't know what to do with his purchase.[130] This is
all my public news, unless you regard as touching on public affairs the
fact that a certain Herennius, a tribune, and a fellow tribesman of
yours--a fellow as unprincipled as he is needy--has now begun making
frequent proposals for transferring P. Clodius to the plebs; he is
vetoed by many of his colleagues. That is really, I think, all the
public news.

For my part, ever since I won what I may call the splendid and immortal
glory of the famous fifth of December[131] (though it was accompanied by
the jealousy and hostility of many), I have never ceased to play my part
in the Republic in the same lofty spirit, and to maintain the position I
then inaugurated and took upon myself. But when, first, by the acquittal
of Clodius I clearly perceived the insecurity and rotten state of the
law courts; and, secondly, when I saw that it took so little to alienate
my friends the _publicani_ from the senate--though with me personally
they had no quarrel; and, thirdly, that the rich (I mean your friends
the fish-breeders) did not disguise their jealousy of me, I thought I
must look out for some greater security and stronger support. So, to
begin with, I have brought the man who had been too long silent on my
achievements, Pompey himself, to such a frame of mind as not once only
in the senate, but many times and in many words, to ascribe to me the
preservation of this empire and of the world. And this was not so
important to me--for those transactions are neither so obscure as to
need testimony, nor so dubious as to need commendation--as to the
Republic; for there were certain persons base enough to think that some
misunderstanding would arise between me and Pompey from a difference of
opinion on these measures. With him I have united myself in such close
intimacy that both of us can by this union be better fortified in his
own views, and more secure in his political position. However, the
dislike of the licentious dandie