ly suggest for my consolation. For, as the case of Tigranes
was passed over, all hope of a rupture is at an end.[317] You bid me
thank Varro: I will do so; also Hypsaeus.[318] As to your advice not to
go farther off till the _acta_[319] of the month of May reach me, I
think I shall do as you suggest. But where to stay? I have not yet come
to any decision. And indeed my mind is so uneasy about Quintus, that I
can determine on nothing. However, I will let you know immediately. From
the incoherent nature of my letters I think you will understand the
agitation of my mind, caused not so much by my misery, though I have
been overwhelmed by an incredible and unparalleled calamity, as by the
recollection of my blunder. For by whose unprincipled advice I was egged
on and betrayed you certainly now perceive,[320] and oh that you had
perceived it before, and had not given your whole mind to lamentation
along with me! Wherefore, when you are told that I am prostrate and
unmanned with grief, consider that I am more distressed at my own folly
than at the result of it, in having believed a man whom I did not think
to be treacherous. My writing is impeded both by the recollection of my
own disasters, and by my alarm about my brother. Yes, pray look after
and direct all the affairs you mention. Terentia expresses the warmest
gratitude to you. I have sent you a copy of the letter which I have
written to Pompey.

Thessalonica, 29 May.

[Footnote 316: Reading _ab Ilio_ with Madvig for _ab illo_.]

[Footnote 317: Tigranes, a son of the king of Armenia, was brought to
Rome by Pompey to adorn his triumph, and put under the care of Lucius
Flavius. This prince was, for a bribe, released by Clodius by a trick,
and the attempt to get him away led to a scuffle in which lives were
lost. Pompey regarded this as a slight upon himself, and his partisan,
the consul Gabinius, attempted to prevent it. But both were hustled in
the forum and treated with insults. The hope of a breach in the
triumvirate arose from the supposition that Clodius had the support of
Caesar in his high-handed proceeding (Dio, xxxviii. 30; Plut. _Pomp._ 48;
Ascon. 47).]

[Footnote 318: P. Plautius Hypsaeus, who had been Pompey's quaestor and on
intimate terms with him. He had been, it seems, interesting himself on
Cicero's behalf.]

[Footnote 319: The gazette of public transactions and measures passed in
the senate, which was sent round to the provinces. We shall hear of it