afterward elected Censor. The office of Censor was in some respects the
highest in Rome. The Censors were elected only once in four years,
remaining in office for eighteen months. The idea was that powers so
arbitrary as these should be in existence only for a year and a half out
of each four years. Questions of morals were considered by them. Should
a Senator be held to have lived as did not befit a Senator, a Censor
could depose him. As Appius was elected Censor immediately after his
acquittal, together with that Piso whom Cicero had so hated, it may be
understood that his influence was very great.[117] It was great enough
to produce from Cicero letters which were flattering and false. The man
who had been able to live with a humanity, a moderation, and an honesty
befitting a Christian, had not risen to that appreciation of the beauty
of truth which an exercise of Christianity is supposed to exact.

"Sed quid agas? Sic vivitur!"[118]--"What would you have me do? It is
thus we live now!" This he exclaims in a letter to Caelius, written a
short time before he left the province. "What would you say if you read
my last letter to Appius?" You would open your eyes if you knew how I
have flattered Appius--that was his meaning. "Sic vivitur!"--"It is so
we live now." When I read this I feel compelled to ask whether there was
an opportunity for any other way of living. Had he seen the baseness of
lying as an English Christian gentleman is expected to see it, and had
adhered to truth at the cost of being a martyr, his conduct would have
been high though we might have known less of it; but, looking at all the
circumstances of the period, have we a right to think that he could have
done so?

From Athens on his way home Cicero wrote to his wife, joining Tullia's
name with hers. "Lux nostra," he calls his daughter; "the very apple of
my eye!" He had already heard from various friends that civil war was
expected. He will have to declare himself on his arrival--that is, to
take one side or the other--and the sooner he does so the better. There
is some money to be looked for--a legacy which had been left to him. He
gives express directions as to the persons to be employed respecting
this, omitting the name of that Philotomus as to whose honesty he is
afraid. He calls his wife "suavissima et optatissima Terentia," but he
does not write to her with the true love which was expressed by his
letters when in exile. From Athens, also, wher