ouraged by the growing coolness
between Pompey and Caesar to attack the acts of Caesar during his
consulship, and after his successful defence of Publius Sestius on the
10th of March he proposed on the 5th of April that the senate should on
the 15th of May discuss Caesar's distribution of the Campanian land.
This brought about the conference of Luca (Lucca). Cicero was again
deserted by his supporters and threatened with fresh exile. He was
forced to publish a "recantation," probably the speech _de Provinciis
Consularibus_, and in a private letter says frankly, "I know that I have
been a regular ass." His conduct for the next three years teems with
inconsistencies which we may deplore but cannot pass over. He was
obliged to defend in 54 Publius Vatinius, whom he had fiercely attacked
during the trial of Sestius; also Aulus Gabinius, one of the consuls to
whom his exile was due; and Rabirius Postumus, an agent of Gabinius. On
the other hand, he made a violent speech in the senate in 55 against
Lucius Piso, the colleague of Gabinius in 58. We know from his letters
that he accepted financial aid from Caesar, but that he repaid the loan
before the outbreak of the civil war.[4] There is no doubt that he was
easily deceived. He was always an optimist, and thought that he was
bringing good influence to bear upon Caesar as afterwards upon Octavian.
His actions, however, when Caesar's projects became manifest,
sufficiently vindicated his honesty. During these unhappy years he took
refuge in literature. The _de Oratore_ was written in 55 B.C., the _de
Republica_ in 54, and the _de Legibus_ at any rate begun in 52. The
latter year is famous for the murder of Clodius by T. Annius Milo on the
Appian Way (on the 18th of January), which brought about the appointment
of Pompey as sole consul and the passing of the special laws dealing
with rioting and bribery. Cicero took an active part in the trials which
followed, both as a defender of Milo and his adherents and as a
prosecutor of the opposite faction. At the close of the year, greatly to
his annoyance, he was sent to govern Cilicia under the provisions of
Pompey's law (see POMPEY and ROME: _History_). His reluctance to leave
Rome, already shown by his refusal to take a province, after his
praetorship and consulship, was increased by the inclination of his
daughter Tullia, then a widow, to marry again.[5] During his absence she
married the profligate spendthrift, P. Cornelius Dolabella