d to the
people on the agrarian law, a third on Otho, a fourth for Rabirius, a
fifth on the Sons of the Proscribed, a sixth when I declined a province
in public meeting, a seventh when I allowed Catiline to escape, which I
delivered the day after Catiline fled, a ninth in public meeting on the
day that the Allobroges made their revelation, a tenth in the senate on
the 5th of December. There are also two short ones, which may be called
fragments, on the agrarian law. This whole cycle I will see that you
have. And since you like my writings as well as my actions, from these
same rolls you will learn both what I have done and what I have said--or
you should not have asked for them, for I did not make you an offer of
them.]

You ask me why I urge you to come home, and at the same time you
intimate that you are hampered by business affairs, and yet say that you
will nevertheless hasten back, not only if it is needful, but even if I
desire it. Well, there is certainly no absolute necessity, yet I do
think you might plan the periods of your tour somewhat more
conveniently. Your absence is too prolonged, especially as you are in a
neighbouring country, while yet I cannot enjoy your society, nor you
mine. For the present there is peace, but if my young friend
Pulcher's[148] madness found means to advance a little farther, I should
certainly summon you from your present sojourn. But Metellus is offering
him a splendid opposition and will continue to do so. Need I say more?
He is a truly patriotic consul and, as I have ever thought, naturally an
honest man. That person, however, makes no disguise, but avowedly
desires to be elected tribune. But when the matter was mooted in the
senate, I cut the fellow to pieces, and taunted him with his
changeableness in seeking the tribuneship at Rome after having given out
at Hera, in Sicily,[149] that he was a candidate for the aedileship; and
went on to say that we needn't much trouble ourselves, for that he would
not be permitted to ruin the Republic any more as a plebeian, than
patricians like him had been allowed to do so in my consulship.
Presently, on his saying that he had completed the journey from the
straits in seven days, and that it was impossible for anyone to have
gone out to meet him, and that he had entered the city by night,[150]
and making a great parade of this in a public meeting, I remarked that
that was nothing new for him: seven days from Sicily to Rome, three
hours fro