ity or sneaking
love of reputation there is lurking in me--for it is well to know one's
faults--is tickled by a certain pleasurable feeling. For it used to
sting me to the heart to think that centuries hence the services of
Sampsiceramus to the state would loom larger than my own. That anxiety,
at least, is now put to rest. For he is so utterly fallen that, in
comparison with him, Curius might seem to be standing erect after his
fall.[247] But all this when we meet. Yet, as far as I can see, you will
be at Rome when I come. I shall not be at all sorry for that, if you
can conveniently manage it. But if you come to see me, as you say in
your letter, I wish you would fish out of Theophanes how
"Arabarches"[248] is disposed to me. You will, of course, inquire with
your usual zeal, and bring me the result to serve as a kind of
suggestion for the line of conduct I am to adopt. From his conversation
we shall be able to get an inkling of the whole situation.

[Footnote 245: The marriage of Pompey with Caesar's daughter Iulia.]

[Footnote 246: [Greek: adiaphoria], a word taken from the Stoies, _huic_
[_Zenoni_] _summum bonum est in his rebus neutram in partem moveri, quae
[Greek: adiaphoria] ab ipso dicitur_ (_Acad._ ii. Sec. 130).]

[Footnote 247: C. Curius, one of the Catiline set, who had been
ignominiously expelled from the senate.]

[Footnote 248: Another nickname of Pompey, from the title of the head of
the Thebais in Egypt. Like Sampsiceramus and the others, it is meant as
a scornful allusion to Pompey's achievements in the East, and perhaps
his known wish to have the direction of affairs in Egypt.]

XLIV (A II, 18)

TO ATTICUS (ON HIS WAY TO EPIRUS)

ROME

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

I have received several letters from you, which shewed me with what
eagerness and anxiety you desired to know the news. We are bound hard
and fast on every side, and are no longer making any difficulty as to
being slaves, but fearing death and exile as though greater evils,
though they are in fact much smaller ones. Well, this is the
position--one unanimously groaned over, but not relieved by a word from
anyone. The object, I surmise, of the men in power is to leave nothing
for anyone to lavish. The only man who opens his mouth and openly
disapproves is the young Curio. He is loudly cheered, and greeted in the
forum in the most complimentary manner, and many other tokens of
goodwill are bestowed on him by the loyalists;