Paulus AEmilius and
of Marius--he adds the name of Pompey to these names; or gives, rather,
to Pompey greater glory than to any of them; "Anteponatur omnibus
Pompeius." This was but a few days before Metellus as Tribune had
stopped him in his speech--at the instigation, probably, of Caesar, and
in furtherance of Pompey's views. Pompey and Caesar could agree, at any
rate, in this--that they did not want such a one as Cicero to interfere
with them.

All of which Cicero himself perceived. The specially rich, province of
Macedonia, which would have been his had he chosen to take it on
quitting the Consulship, he made over to Antony--no doubt as a bribe, as
with us one statesman may resign a special office to another to keep
that other from kicking over the traces. Then Gaul became his province,
as allotted--Cisalpine Gaul, as northern Italy was then called; a
province less rich in plunder and pay than Macedonia. But Cicero wanted
no province, and had contrived that this should be confided to Metellus
Celer, the brother of Nepos, who, having been Praetor when he himself was
Consul, was entitled to a government. This too was a political bribe. If
courtesy to Caesar, if provinces given up here and there to Antonys and
Metelluses, if flattery lavished on Pompey could avail anything, he
could not afford to dispense with such aids. It all availed nothing.
From this time forward, for the twenty years which were to run before
his death, his life was one always of trouble and doubt, often of
despair, and on many occasions of actual misery. The source of this was
that Pompey whom, with divine attributes, he had extolled above all
other Romans.

The first extant letter written by Cicero after his Consulship was
addressed to Pompey.[214] Pompey was still in the East, but had
completed his campaigns against Mithridates successfully. Cicero begins
by congratulating him, as though to do so were the purpose of his
letter. Then he tells the victorious General that there were some in
Rome not so well pleased as he was at these victories. It is supposed
that he alluded here to Caesar; but, if so, he probably misunderstood the
alliance which was already being formed between Caesar and Pompey. After
that comes the real object of the epistle. He had received letters from
Pompey congratulating him in very cold language as to the glories of his
Consulship. He had expected much more than that from the friend for whom
he had done so much. Still,