Laterensis. See Letter L, p. 123.]

[Footnote 252: Pulchellus, _i.e._, P. Clodius Pulcher. The diminutive is
used to express contempt. Cicero, since his return to Rome, is beginning
to realize his danger.]

[Footnote 253: A _libera legatio_ was really a colourable method of a
senator travelling with the right of exacting certain payments for his
expenses from the Italian or provincial towns. Sometimes it was simply a
_legatio libera_, a sinecure without any pretence of purpose, sometimes
it was _voti causa_, enabling a man to fulfil some vow he was supposed
to have made. It was naturally open to much abuse, and Cicero as consul
had passed a law for limiting it in time. Clodius would become tribune
on 10 December, and this _libera legatio_ would protect Cicero as long
as it lasted, but it would not, he thinks, last long enough to outstay
the tribuneship: if he went as _legatus_ to Caesar in Gaul, he would be
safe, and might choose his own time for resigning and returning to
Rome.]

[Footnote 254: Statius, a slave of Quintus, was unpopular in the
province. See p. 125.]

XLV (A II, 19)

TO ATTICUS (IN EPIRUS)

ROME (JULY)

[Sidenote: B.C. 59, AET. 47]

I have many causes for anxiety, both from the disturbed state of
politics and from the personal dangers with which I am threatened. They
are very numerous; but nothing gives me more annoyance than the
manumission of Statius: "To think that he should have no reverence for
my authority! But of authority I say nothing--that he should have no
fear of a quarrel with me, to put it mildly!"[255] But what I am to do I
don't know, nor indeed is there so much in the affair as you would think
from the talk about it. For myself, I am positively incapable of being
angry with those I love deeply. I only feel vexed, and that to a
surprising degree. Other vexations are on really important matters. The
threats of Clodius and the conflicts before me touch me only slightly.
For I think I can either confront them with perfect dignity or decline
them without any embarrassment. You will say, perhaps, "Enough of
dignity, like the proverb, 'Enough of the oak':[256] an you love me,
take thought for safety!" Ah, dear me, dear me, why are you not here?
Nothing, certainly, could have escaped you. I, perhaps, am somewhat
blinded, and too much affected by my high ideal. I assure you there
never was anything so scandalous, so shameful, so offensive to all
sorts, conditions and ages of m