the same charge, and as to
Pompey's treatment of him there can be no doubt. Pompey had been untrue
to his promises because of his bond with Caesar. It is probable that
Hortensius had failed to put himself forward on Cicero's behalf with
that alacrity which the one advocate had expected from the other. Cicero
and Hortensius were friends afterward, but so were Cicero and Pompey.
Cicero was forgiving by nature, and also by self-training. It did not
suit his purposes to retain his enmities. Had there been a possibility
of reconciling Antony to the cause of the "optimates" after the
Philippics, he would have availed himself of it.

Cicero at one time intended to go to Buthrotum in Epirus, where Atticus
possessed a house and property; but he changed his purpose. He remained
at Thessalonica till November, and then returned to Dyrrachium, having
all through his exile been kept alive by tidings of steps taken for his
recall. There seems very soon to have grown up a feeling in Rome that
the city had disgraced itself by banishing such a man; and Caesar had
gone to his provinces. We can well imagine that when he had once left
Rome, with all his purposes achieved, having so far quieted the tongue
of the strong speaker who might have disturbed them, he would take no
further steps to perpetuate the orator's banishment. Then Pompey and
Clodius soon quarrelled. Pompey, without Caesar to direct him, found the
arrogance of the Patrician Tribune insupportable. We hear of wheels
within wheels, and stories within stories, in the drama of Roman history
as it was played at this time. Together with Cicero, it had been
necessary to Caesar's projects that Cato also should be got out of Rome;
and this had been managed by means of Clodius, who had a bill passed for
the honorable employment of Cato on state purposes in Cyprus. Cato had
found himself obliged to go. It was as though our Prime-minister had got
parliamentary authority for sending a noisy member of the Opposition to
Asiatic Turkey for six months There was an attempt, or an alleged
attempt, of Clodius to have Pompey murdered; and there was
street-fighting, so that Pompey was besieged, or pretended to be
besieged, in his own house. "We might as well seek to set a charivari to
music as to write the history of this political witches' revel," says
Mommsen, speaking of the state of Rome when Caesar was gone, Cicero
banished, and Pompey supposed to be in the ascendant.[284] There was, at
any r