how
Cicero's cooks were boiling and stewing at the time. Then the great man
walked down upon the sea-shore. Rome was the only recognized nation in
the world. The others were provinces of Rome, and the rest were outlying
barbaric people, hardly as yet fit to be Roman provinces. And he was now
lord of Rome. Did he think of this as he walked on the shore of
Puteoli--or of the ceremony he was about to encounter before he ate his
dinner? He did not walk long, for at two o'clock he bathed, and heard
"that story about Mamurra" without moving a muscle. Turn to your
Catullus, the 57th Epigram, and read what Caesar had read to him on this
occasion, without showing by his face the slightest feeling. It is short
enough, but I cannot quote it even in a note, even in Latin. Who told
Caesar of the foul words, and why were they read to him on this
occasion? He thought but little about them, for he forgave the author
and asked him afterward to supper. This was at the bath, we may suppose.
He then took his siesta, and after that "[Greek: emetiken] agebat." How
the Romans went through the daily process and lived, is to us a marvel.
I think we may say that Cicero did not practise it. Caesar, on this
occasion, ate and drank plenteously and with pleasure. It was all well
arranged, and the conversation was good of its kind, witty and pleasant.
Caesar's couch seems to have been in the midst, and around him lay
supping, at other tables, his freedmen, and the rest of his suite. It
was all very well; but still, says Cicero, he was not such a guest as
you would welcome back--not one to whom you would say, "Come again, I
beg, when you return this way." Once is enough. There were no politics
talked--nothing of serious matters. Caesar had begun to find now that no
use could be made of Cicero for politics. He had tried that, and had
given it up. Philology was the subject--the science of literature and
languages. Caesar could talk literature as well as Cicero, and turned the
conversation in that direction. Cicero was apt, and took the desired
part, and so the afternoon passed pleasantly, but still with a little
feeling that he was glad when his guest was gone.[167]

Caesar declared, as he went, that he would spend one day at Puteoli and
another at Baiae. Dolabella had a villa down in those parts, and Cicero
knows that Caesar, as he passed by Dolabella's house, rode in the midst
of soldiers--in state, as we should say--but that he had not done this
anyw