only pardon your vexation, I even applaud it in the highest
degree; for my own heart tells me how strong is the influence of
fraternal affection. I ask you in your turn to put a liberal
construction upon my vexation, and to conclude that when attacked by
your relatives with bitterness, with brutality, and without cause, I not
only ought not to retract anything, but, in a case of that kind, should
even be able to rely upon the aid of yourself and your army. I have
always wished to have you as a friend: I have taken pains to make you
understand that I am a warm friend to you. I abide by that sentiment,
and shall abide by it as long as _you_ will let me; and I shall more
readily cease to be angry with your brother for love of you, than I
shall from anger with him abate in the smallest degree my kindness for
you.

[Footnote 58: Metellus had been employed with Antonius against the camp
at Faesulae, but was now engaged against some Alpine tribes.]

[Footnote 59: When Metellus was commanding against Catiline, it is
suggested that he marched towards Rome to support his brother, but this
is conjecture.]

[Footnote 60: Sister of P. Clodius. Of this famous woman we shall hear
often again. She is believed to be the Lesbia of Catullus, and she is
the "Palatine Medea" of the speech _pro Caelio_. Yet, in spite of
Cicero's denunciations of her, he seems at one time to have been so fond
of her society as to rouse Terentia's jealousy.]

[Footnote 61: Wife of Pompey--divorced by him on his return from the
East.]

[Footnote 62: On the next meeting of the senate. The second was a _dies
comitialis_ on which the senate usually did not meet (Caes. _B. Civ._ i.
I).]

[Footnote 63: For the riots caused by his contests with Cato (on which
the senate seems to have passed the _senatus consultum ultimum_), and
for his having left Rome while tribune.]

XV (F V, 6)

TO P. SESTIUS[64] (IN MACEDONIA)

ROME, DECEMBER

[Sidenote: B.C. 62, AET. 44]

Decius the copyist has been to see me, and begged me to try and secure
that no successor should be appointed to you this turn. Though I
regarded him as a man of good character and attached to you, yet,
remembering the tenor of your previous letter to me, I could not feel
certain that the wishes of a cautious man of the world like yourself had
undergone so complete a change. But after your wife Cornelia had called
on Terentia, and I had had a conversation with Q. Cornelius, I took care
t