o,
and also to his brother Marcus; for they were of the equestrian order,
and specially connected with these "publicani" by family ties. He
implies, as he goes on, that it will be easier to teach the Greeks to be
submissive than the tax-gatherers to be moderate. After all, where would
the Greeks of Asia be if they had no Roman master to afford them
protection? He leaves the matter in the hands of his brother, with
advice that he should do the best he can on one side and on the other.
If possible, let the greed of the "publicani" be restrained; but let the
ally be taught to understand that there may be usage in the world worse
even than Roman taxation. It would be hardly worth our while to allude
to this part of Cicero's advice, did it not give an insight into the
mode in which Rome taxed her subject people.

After this he commences that portion of the letter for the sake of which
we cannot but believe that the whole was written. "There is one thing,"
he says, "which I will never cease to din into your ears, because I
could not endure to think that, amid the praises which are lavished on
you, there should be any matter in which you should be found wanting.
All who come to us here"--all who come to Rome from Asia, that is--"when
they tell us of your honesty and goodness of heart, tell us also that
you fail in temper. It is a vice which, in the daily affairs of private
life, betokens a weak and unmanly spirit; but there can be nothing so
poor as the exhibition of the littleness of nature in those who have
risen to the dignity of command." He will not, he goes on to say,
trouble his brother with repeating all that the wise men have said on
the subject of anger; he is sure that Quintus is well acquainted with
all that. But is it not a pity, when all men say that nothing could be
pleasanter than Quintus Cicero when in a good-humor, the same Quintus
should allow himself to be so provoked that his want of kindly manners
should be regretted by all around him? "I cannot assert," he goes on to
say, "that when nature has produced a certain condition of mind, and
that years as they run on have strengthened it, a man can change all
that and pluck out from his very self the habits that have grown within
him; yet I must tell you that if you cannot eschew this evil
altogether--if you cannot protect yourself against the feeling of anger,
yet you should prepare yourself to be ready for it when it comes, so
that, when your very soul within