await the time for
legislation, and, if the law is defeated, I shall avail myself of the
resolution of the senate,[375] and prefer to be deprived of my life
rather than of my country. Make haste, I beg, to come to me.

[Footnote 375: On 1st January, B.C. 57, P. Lentulus brought the case of
Cicero before the senate. The prevailing opinion was that his
_interdictio_ having been illegal, the senate could quash it. But
Pompey, for the sake of security, recommended a _lex_. One of the
tribunes, without actually vetoing the _senatus consultum_, demanded a
night for consideration. The question was again debated in succeeding
meetings of the senate, but on the 25th was not decided. Technically an
_auctoritas_ was a decree that had been vetoed by a tribune, and Cicero
(_pro Sest._ Sec. 74) implies that such a veto had been put in, and at any
rate the _noctis postulatio_ was equivalent to a veto.]

LXXXVII (A III, 27)

TO ATTICUS (? AT ROME)

DYRRACHIUM (AFTER 25 JANUARY)

[Sidenote: B.C. 57, AET. 49]

From your letter and from the bare facts I see that I am utterly
ruined.[376] I implore you, in view of my deplorable position, to stand
by my family in whatever respect they shall need your help. I shall, as
you say, see you soon.

[Footnote 376: Perhaps he has just heard that the sitting of the senate
on the 25th of January had been interrupted by Clodius's roughs. But
other similar events happened, and there is no certain means of dating
this note. The difficulty, as it stands, is that it implies Atticus's
temporary return to Rome.]

LXXXVIII (F V, 4)

TO Q. METELLUS THE CONSUL (AT ROME)

DYRRACHIUM (JANUARY)

[Sidenote: B.C. 57, AET. 49]

A letter from my brother Quintus, and one from my friend Titus
Pomponius, had given me so much hope, that I depended on your assistance
no less than on that of your colleague. Accordingly, I at once sent you
a letter in which, as my present position required, I offered you thanks
and asked for the continuance of your assistance. Later on, not so much
the letters of my friends, as the conversation of travellers by this
route, indicated that your feelings had undergone a change; and that
circumstance prevented my venturing to trouble you with letters. Now,
however, my brother Quintus has sent me a copy which he had made of your
exceedingly kind speech delivered in the senate. Induced by this I have
attempted to write to you, and I do ask and beg of you, as far as