re them, or within
their competence; they merely decided the religious question--that
unless there had been a _iussus populi_ or _plebis scitus_ there was no
valid consecration.]

[Footnote 388: Or perhaps only "statue of Liberty," as the temple was
not yet completed.]

[Footnote 389: A portico or colonnade, built by Q. Catulus, the
conqueror of the Cimbri, on the site of the house of M. Flaccus, who was
killed with Saturninus in B.C. 100. It was close to Cicero's house, and
what Clodius appears to have done was to pull down the portico, and
build another, extending over part of Cicero's site, on which was to be
a temple for his statue of Liberty.]

[Footnote 390: Cn. Cornelius Lentulus Marcellinus was called on first as
consul designate for B.C. 56.]

[Footnote 391: Sext. Attilius Serranus, a tribune. He had been a quaestor
in Cicero's consulship, but had opposed his recall.]

[Footnote 392: Cn. Oppius Cornicinus, the father-in-law of Serranus, is
said in _p. red. at Quir._ Sec. 13 to have done the same in the senate on
the 1st of January, when Serranus also went through the same form of
"demanding a night" for consideration.]

[Footnote 393: Prof. Tyrrell brackets _porticum_. But I do not
understand his difficulty, especially as he saw none in the last letter.
Cicero (_de Domo_, Sec. 102) certainly implies that Clodius had, at any
rate, partly pulled down the _porticus Catuli_, in order to build
something on a larger scale, which was to take in some of Cicero's site.
This was now to come down, and so leave Cicero his _area_, and, I
presume, the old _porticus Catuli_ was to be restored.]

[Footnote 394: Cicero had given Crassus 3,500,000 for it (about
L28,000). See Letter XVI.]

[Footnote 395: _I.e._, my modest reserve. There does not seem any reason
for Tyrrell's emendation of _num_ for _nam_.]

[Footnote 396: I have translated Klotz's text. That given by Prof.
Tyrrell is, to me at any rate, quite unintelligible. Cicero's _legatio_
under Pompey appears to have been, in fact, honorary, or _libera_, for
he doesn't seem to have done anything. He wishes to reserve the right of
resigning it to stand for the censorship (censors were elected in the
following year), or of turning it into a _votiva legatio_, to visit
certain sacred places on the plea of performing a vow, thus getting the
opportunity, if he desired it, of retiring temporarily from Rome in a
dignified manner. The force of _prope_ seems to be "almost a