re answer
to a request for the information on the part of Atticus; in which case
the date must refer to some previous year, or the letter must be placed
considerably later, to allow of time for Atticus to hear of the death
and to write his question. In favour of the first is the fact that
Asconius (Sec. 82) says that Cicero lost his father when he was a candidate
for the consulship (B.C. 64). Some doubt has been thrown upon the
genuineness of the passage in Asconius; and, if that is not trustworthy,
we have nothing else to help us. On the whole I think we must leave the
announcement as it stands in all its baldness. Cicero's father had long
been an invalid, and Atticus may have been well aware that the end was
expected. He would also be acquainted with the son's feelings towards
his father, and Cicero may have held it unnecessary to enlarge upon
them. It is possible, too, that he had already written to tell Atticus
of the death and of his own feelings, but had omitted the date, which he
here supplies. Whatever may be the true explanation--impossible now to
recover--everything we know of Cicero forbids us to reckon insensibility
among his faults, or reserve in expressing his feelings among his
characteristics.

[Sidenote: The Praetorship, B.C. 66.]

In the next year (B.C. 67) we find Cicero elected to the praetorship,
after at least two interruptions to the _comitia_, which, though not
aimed at himself, gave him a foretaste of the political troubles to come
a few years later. He is, however, at present simply annoyed at the
inconvenience, not yet apprehensive of any harm to the constitution. The
double postponement, indeed, had the effect of gratifying his vanity:
for his own name was returned three times first of the list of eight.
His praetorship (B.C. 66) passed without any startling event. The two
somewhat meagre letters which remain belonging to this year tell us
hardly anything. Still he began more or less to define his political
position by advocating the _lex Manilia_, for putting the Mithridatic
war into the hands of Pompey; and one of his most elaborate forensic
speeches--that for Cluentius--was delivered in the course of the year:
in which also his brother Quintus was elected to the aedileship.

[Sidenote: B.C. 65-64. Preparations for the Consulship.]

So far Cicero had risen steadily and without serious difficulty up the
official ladder. But the stress was now to come. The old families seem
not to have be