t that
he attempted to do it, but because in a half-joking letter to the friend
of his bosom he tells his friend which way his tastes lay![254]

He had been thinking of writing a book on geography, and consulted
Atticus on the subject; but in one of his letters he tells his friend
that he had abandoned the idea. The subject was too dull; and if he took
one side in a dispute that was existing, he would be sure to fall under
the lash of the critics on the other. He is enjoying his leisure at
Antium, and thinks it a much better place than Rome. If the weather will
not let him catch fish, at any rate he can count the waves. In all these
letters Cicero asks questions about his money and his private affairs;
about the mending of a wall, perhaps, and adds something about his wife
or daughter or son. He is going from Antium to Formiae, but must return
to Antium by a certain date because Tullia wants to see the games.

Then again he alludes to Clodius. Pompey had made a compact with
Clodius--so at least Cicero had heard--that he, Clodius, if elected for
the Tribunate, would do nothing to injure Cicero. The assurance of such
a compact had no doubt been spread about for the quieting of Cicero; but
no such compact had been intended to be kept, unless Cicero would be
amenable, would take some of the good things offered to him, or at any
rate hold his peace. But Cicero affects to hope that no such agreement
may be kept. He is always nicknaming Pompey, who during his Eastern
campaign had taken Jerusalem, and who now parodies the Africanus, the
Asiaticus, and the Macedonicus of the Scipios and Metelluses. "If that
Hierosolymarian candidate for popularity does not keep his word with me,
I shall be delighted. If that be his return for my speeches on his
behalf"--the Anteponatur omnibus Pompeius, for instance--"I will play
him such a turn of another kind that he shall remember it."[255]

He begins to know what the "Triumvirate" is doing with the Republic, but
has not yet brought himself to suspect the blow that is to fall on
himself. "They are going along very gayly," he says, "and do not make as
much noise as one would have expected."[256] If Cato had been more on
the alert, things would not have gone so quickly; but the dishonesty of
others, who have allowed all the laws to be ignored, has been worse than
Cato. If we used to feel that the Senate took too much on itself, what
shall we say when that power has been transferred, not to the