eckoned a very short time for
accomplishing the journey.]

He seems to have found the province in a deplorable condition. "I
staid," he writes, "three days at Laodicea, three again at Apamca, and
as many at Synnas, and heard nothing except complaints that they could
not pay the poll-tax imposed upon them, that every one's property was
sold; heard, I say, nothing but complaints and groans, and monstrous
deeds which seemed to suit not a man but some horrid wild beast. Still
it is some alleviation to these unhappy towns that they are put to no
expense for me or for any of my followers. I will not receive the fodder
which is my legal due, nor even the wood. Sometimes I have accepted four
beds and a roof over my head; often not even this, preferring to lodge
in a tent. The consequence of all this is an incredible concourse of
people from town and country anxious to see me. Good heavens! my very
approach seems to make them revive, so completely do the justice,
moderation, and clemency of your friend surpass all expectation." It
must be allowed that Cicero was not unaccustomed to sound his own
praises.

Usury was one of the chief causes of this widespread distress; and
usury, as we have seen, was practiced even by Romans of good repute. We
have seen an "honorable man," such as Brutus, exacting an interest of
nearly fifty per cent. Pompey was receiving, at what rate of interest we
do not know, the enormous sum of nearly one hundred thousand pounds per
annum from the tributary king of Cappadocia, and this was less than he
was entitled to. Other debtors of this impecunious king could get
nothing; every thing went into Pompey's purse, and the whole country was
drained of coin to the very uttermost. In the end, however, Cicero did
manage to get twenty thousand pounds for Brutus, who was also one of the
king's creditors. We cannot but wonder, if such things went on under a
governor who was really doing his best to be moderate and just, what was
the condition of the provincials under ordinary rulers.

While Cicero was busy with the condition of his province; his attention
was distracted by what we may call a Parthian "scare." The whole army of
this people was said to have crossed the Euphrates under the command of
Pacorus, the king's son. The governor of Syria had not yet arrived. The
second in command had shut himself up with all his troops in Antioch.
Cicero marched into Cappadocia, which bordered the least defensible side
of Ci