we are informed by himself in this letter
to Sextius that he had to borrow money for the occasion--so much so
that, being a man now indebted, he might be supposed to be ripe for any
conspiracy. Hence has come to us a story through Aulus Gellius, the
compiler of anecdotes, to the effect that Cicero was fain to borrow this
money from a client whose cause he undertook in requital for the favor
so conferred. Aulus Gellius collected his stories two centuries
afterward for the amusement of his children, and has never been regarded
as an authority in matters for which confirmation has been wanting.
There is no allusion to such borrowing from a client made by any
contemporary. In this letter to Sextius, in which he speaks jokingly of
his indebtedness, he declares that he has been able to borrow any amount
he wanted at six per cent--twelve being the ordinary rate--and gives as
a reason for this the position which he has achieved by his services to
the State. Very much has been said of the story, as though the purchaser
of the house had done something of which he ought to have been ashamed,
but this seems to have sprung entirely from the idea that a man who, in
the midst of such wealth as prevailed at Rome, had practised so widely
and so successfully the invaluable profession of an advocate, must
surely have taken money for his services. He himself has asserted that
he took none, and all the evidence that we have goes to show that he
spoke the truth. Had he taken money, even as a loan, we should have
heard of it from nearer witnesses than Aulus Gellius, if, as Aulus
Gellius tells us, it had become known at the time. But because he tells
his friend that he has borrowed money for the purpose, he is supposed to
have borrowed it in a disgraceful manner! It will be found that all the
stones most injurious to Cicero's reputation have been produced in the
same manner. His own words have been misinterpreted--either the purport
of them, if spoken in earnest, or their bearing, if spoken in joke--and
then accusations have been founded on them.[218]

Another charge of dishonest practice was about this time made against
Cicero without a grain of evidence, though indeed the accusations so
made, and insisted upon, apparently from a feeling that Cicero cannot
surely have been altogether clean when all others were so dirty, are too
numerous to receive from each reader's judgment that indignant denial to
which each is entitled. The biographer canno