only follows from it that Vatinius, when the collection appeared,
might already reckon on becoming consul in a definite year,
for which he had every reason as early as 700; for his name
certainly stood on the list of candidates agreed on at Luca
(Cicero, Ad. Att. iv. 8 b. 2).

10. The well-known poem of Catullus (numbered as xxix.)
was written in 699 or 700 after Caesar's Britannic expedition
and before the death of Julia:

-Quis hoc potest videre, quis potest pati, Nisi impudicus et vorax
et aleo, Mamurram habere quod comata Gallia Habebat ante et ultima
Britannia-? etc.

Mamurra of Formiae, Caesar's favourite and for a time during
the Gallic wars an officer in his army, had, presumably a short time
before the composition of this poem, returned to the capital and
was in all likelihood then occupied with the building of his much-
talked-of marble palace furnished with lavish magnificence on
the Caelian hill. The Iberian booty mentioned in the poem must have
reference to Caesar's governorship of Further Spain, and Mamurra
must even then, as certainly afterwards in Gaul, have been found at
Caesar's headquarters; the Pontic booty presumably has reference to
the war of Pompeius against Mithradates, especially as according to
the hint of the poet it was not merely Caesar that enriched Mamurra.

More innocent than this virulent invective, which was bitterly felt
by Caesar (Suet. Caes. 73), is another nearly contemporary poem of
the same author (xi.) to which we may here refer, because with its
pathetic introduction to an anything but pathetic commission it
very cleverly quizzes the general staff of the new regents--the
Gabiniuses, Antoniuses, and such like, suddenly advanced from
the lowest haunts to headquarters. Let it be remembered that it was
written at a time when Caesar was fighting on the Rhine and on
the Thames, and when the expeditions of Crassus to Parthia and of
Gabinius to Egypt were in preparation. The poet, as if he too
expected one of the vacant posts from one of the regents, gives
to two of his clients their last instructions before departure:

-Furi et Aureli, comites Catulli-, etc.

11. V. VIII. Clodius

12. In this year the January with 29 and the February with 23 days
were followed by the intercalary month with 28, and then by March.

13. -Consul- signifies "colleague" (i. 318), and a consul who is
at the same time proconsul is at once an actual consul and
a consul's substitute.

14. II