ocrat. In
spirit, at any rate, I am as vigorous as in my zenith, or even more so;
in regard to money I am crippled. However, the liberality of my brother
I have, in spite of his protests, repaid (as the state of my finances
compelled) by the aid of my friends, that I might not be drained quite
dry myself. What line of policy to adopt in regard to my position as a
whole, I cannot decide in your absence: wherefore make haste to town.

[Footnote 400: See last letter. The _porticus Catuli_ had been, at any
rate, partly demolished by Clodius to make way for his larger scheme of
building, which was to take in part of Cicero's "site." See _pro Cael._
Sec.79.]

[Footnote 401: Next door to Cicero's own house.]

[Footnote 402: He would avoid prosecution _de vi_ by getting elected to
the aedileship for B.C. 56, for actual magistrates were rarely
prosecuted; but he, in this case, actually avoided it by getting a
consul and tribune to forbid it by edict (_pro Sest._ Sec. 89).]

[Footnote 403: _Designatorem._ This may mean (1) an official who shewed
people to their places in the theatre; (2) an undertaker's man, who
marshalled funerals. To the latter office a certain _infamia_ was
attached. We know nothing more of Decimus (see _pro Domo_, Sec. 50).
Gellius was an eques and a stepson of L. Marcius Philippus. He
afterwards gave evidence against Sestius for _vis_ (see _pro Sest._ Sec.
110). Cicero calls him the mover of all seditions (_in Vatin._ Sec. 4), and
one of Clodius's gang (_de Har. Resp._ Sec. 59). See next letter.]

[Footnote 404: Perhaps by M. Antonius. See 2 _Phil._ Sec. 21; _pro Mil._ Sec.
40.]

[Footnote 405: Lit. "made all Catilines _Acidini_." Acidinus was the
cognomen of several distinguished men. In _Leg. Agr._ ii. Sec. 64, Cicero
classes the _Acidini_ among men "respectable not only for the public
offices they had held, and for their services to the state, but also for
the noble way in which they had endured poverty." There does not,
however, seem any very good reason known for their becoming proverbial
as the antithesis to revolutionaries.]

[Footnote 406: A slope of the Palatine. Milo's other house (p. 196).]

[Footnote 407: P. Cornelius Sulla, nephew of the dictator. Cicero
defended him in B.C. 62, but he had taken the part of Clodius in the
time of Cicero's exile.]

[Footnote 408: Cn. Cornelius Lentulus Marcellinus, the consul-designate
for the next year. In that capacity he would be called on for his
_