), not in Asiatic coins
(_cistophori_), a vast amount of which Pompey had brought home and
deposited in the treasury. So an Indian official might like sovereigns
instead of rupees if he could get them.]

XXXIII (A II, 7)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

ANTIUM (APRIL)

[Sidenote: B.C. 59, AET. 47]

About the geography I will think again and again. But you ask for two of
my speeches, one of which I did not care to write out because I had
ended it abruptly, the other because I did not want to praise the man I
did not like. But that, too, I will see about. At all events, something
shall be forthcoming to prevent your thinking that I have been
absolutely idle. I am quite delighted to hear what you tell me about
Publius; pray ferret out the whole story, and bring it to me when you
come, and meanwhile write anything you may make out or suspect, and
especially as to what he is going to do about the legation. For my part,
before reading your letter, I was anxious that the fellow should go,
not, by heaven, in order to avoid his impeachment--for I am wonderfully
keen to try issues with him--but it seemed to me that, if he had secured
any popularity by becoming a plebeian, he would thereby lose it. "Well,
why did you transfer yourself to the Plebs? Was it to make a call on
Tigranes? Tell me: do the kings of Armenia refuse to receive
patricians?" In a word, I had polished up my weapons to tear this
embassy of his to pieces. But if he rejects it, and thus moves the anger
of those proposers and augurs of the _lex curiata_,[203] it will be a
fine sight! By Hercules, to speak the truth, our friend Publius is being
treated a little contemptuously! In the first place, though he was once
the only man at Caesar's house, he is not now allowed to be one in
twenty:[204] in the next place, one legation had been promised him and
another has been given. The former fine fat one[205] for the levying of
money is reserved, I presume, for Drusus of Pisaurum or for the gourmand
Vatinius: this latter miserable business, which might be very well done
by a courier, is given to him, and his tribuneship deferred till it
suits them. Irritate the fellow, I beg you, as much as you can. The one
hope of safety is their mutual disagreement, the beginning of which I
have got scent of from Curio. Moreover, Arrius is fuming at being
cheated out of the consulship. Megabocchus and our blood-thirsty young
men are most violently hostile. May there be added to this,