--for extorting money in the position of a magistrate.
The money alluded to had been, in truth, extorted by Gabinius from
Ptolemy Auletes as the price paid for his restoration, and had come in
great part probably from out of the pocket of Rabirius himself. Gabinius
had been condemned, and ordered to repay the money. He had none to
repay, and the claim, by some clause in the law to that effect was
transferred to Rabirius as his agent. Rabirius was accused as though he
had extorted the money--which he had in fact lost, but the spirit of the
accusation lay in the idea that he, a Roman knight, had basely subjected
himself to an Egyptian king. That Rabirius had been base and sordid
there can be no doubt. That he was ruined by his transaction with
Auletes is equally certain. It is supposed that he was convicted. He was
afterward employed by Caesar, who, when in power, may have recalled him
from banishment. There are many passages in the oration to which I would
fain refer the reader had I space to do so. I will name only one in
which Cicero endeavors to ingratiate himself with his audience by
referring to the old established Roman hatred of kings: "Who is there
among us who, though he may not have tried them himself, does not know
the ways of kings? 'Listen to me here!' 'Obey my word at once!' 'Speak a
word more than you are told, and you'll see what you'll get!' 'Do that a
second time, and you die!' We should read of such things and look at
them from a distance, not only for our pleasure, but that we may know of
what we have to be aware, and what we ought to avoid."[46]

There is a letter written in this year to Curio, another young friend
such as Caelius, of whom I have spoken. Curio also was clever,
dissipated, extravagant, and unscrupulous. But at this period of his
life he was attached to Cicero, who was not indifferent to the services
which might accrue to him from friends who might be violent and
unscrupulous on the right side.

[Sidenote: B.C. 53, aetat. 54.]

This letter was written to secure Curio's services for another friend
not quite so young, but equally attached, and perhaps of all the Romans
of the time the most unscrupulous and the most violent. This friend was
Milo, who was about to stand for the Consulship of the following year.
Curio was on his road from Asia Minor, where he had been Quaestor, and is
invited by Cicero in language peculiarly pressing to be the leader of
Milo's party on the occasion.[47] W