mation and advice, and made no
difficulty in supplying his friend with money. During Cicero's absence
Atticus became still more wealthy than before by inheriting the estates
of his cross-grained uncle Caecilius. But he was always careful as to the
investment of his money and he would not, perhaps, have been so ready to
trust Cicero, had he not felt confidence in the ultimate recovery of his
civil status. Still his confidence was peculiarly welcome at a time
which would have been otherwise one of great pressure. For Clodius had
followed up Cicero's retirement with the usual _lex_ in regard to
persons leaving Rome to avoid a trial--a prohibition "of fire and water"
within a fixed distance from Italy, which involved the confiscation of
all his property in Italy. His villas were dismantled, his town house
pulled down, and a vote of the people obtained by Clodius for the
consecration of its site as a _templum_ dedicated to Liberty, and a
scheme was formed and the work actually commenced for occupying part of
it by an extension of an existing porticus or colonnade (the _porticus
Catuli_) to contain a statue of Liberty. That this consecration was
regular is shewn by the pleas by which it was afterwards sought to
reverse it.[10] When Cicero was recalled the question came before the
pontifices, who decided that the consecration was not valid unless it
had been done by the "order of the people." It could not be denied on
the face of it that there had been such an order. Cicero was obliged to
resort to the plea that Clodius's adoption had been irregular and
invalid, that therefore he was not legally a tribune, and could not take
an order of the people. Finally, the senate seems to have decided that
its restoration to Cicero was part of the general _restitutio in
integrum_ voted by the _comitia centuriata_; and a sum of money was
assigned to him for the rebuilding of the house. Clodius refused to
recognize the validity of this decree of the senate, and attempted by
violence to interrupt the workmen engaged on the house. We have a lively
picture of this in Letter XCI (vol. i., pp. 194-196).

[Sidenote: Letters of the Exile (Letters LV-LXXXVIII).]

The letters from Cicero as an exile are painful reading for those who
entertain a regard for his character. It was not unnatural, indeed, that
he should feel it grievously. He had so completely convinced himself of
the extraordinary value of his services to the state, of the importance
of