s military
successes over the Cilician mountaineers rewarded by the distinction of
a triumph. The honor of a public thanksgiving had already been voted to
him; Cato, who opposed it on principle, having given him offense by so
doing. A triumph was less easy to obtain, and indeed it seems to show a
certain weakness in Cicero that he should have sought to obtain it for
exploits of so very moderate a kind. However, he landed at Brundisium as
a formal claimant for the honor. His lictors had their fasces (bundles
of rods inclosing an ax) wreathed with bay leaves, as was the custom
with the victorious general who hoped to obtain this distinction.
Pompey, with whom he had a long interview, encouraged him to hope for
it, and promised his support. It was not till January 4th that he
reached the capital. The look of affairs was growing darker and darker,
but he still clung to the hopes of a triumph, and would not dismiss his
lictors with their ornaments, though he was heartily wearied of their
company. Things went so far that a proposition was actually made in the
Senate that the triumph should be granted; but the matter was postponed
at the suggestion of one of the consuls, anxious, Cicero thinks, to make
his own services more appreciated when the time should come. Before the
end of January he seems to have given up his hopes. In a few more days
he was fairly embarked on the tide of civil war.

CHAPTER XIV.

ATTICUS.

The name of Atticus has been mentioned more than once in the preceding
chapters as a correspondent of Cicero. We have indeed more than five
hundred letters addressed to him, extending over a period of almost
five-and-twenty years. There are frequent intervals of silence--not a
single letter, for instance, belongs to the year of the consulship, the
reason being that both the correspondents were in Rome. Sometimes,
especially in the later years, they follow each other very closely. The
last was written about a year before Cicero's death.

Atticus was one of those rare characters who contrive to live at peace
with all men. The times were troublous beyond all measure; he had wealth
and position; he kept up close friendship with men who were in the very
thickest of the fight; he was ever ready with his sympathy and help for
those who were vanquished; and yet he contrived to arouse no enmities;
and after a life-long peace, interrupted only by one or two temporary
alarms, died in a good old age.

Atticus was