hat you should
restore him without an army: the third, that of Volcatius, that Pompey
should do it, a demand was made that the proposal of Bibulus should be
taken in two parts.[443] As far as he dealt with the religious
difficulty--a point which was now past being opposed--his motion was
carried; his proposition as to three legates was defeated by a large
majority. The next was the proposition of Hortensius. Thereupon the
tribune Lupus, on the ground that he had himself made a proposal about
Pompey, starts the contention that he ought to divide the house before
the consuls. His speech was received on all sides by loud cries of "No":
for it was both unfair and unprecedented. The consuls would not give in,
and yet did not oppose with any vigour. Their object was to waste the
day, and in that they succeeded:[444] for they saw very well that many
times the number would vote for the proposal of Hortensius, although
they openly professed their agreement with Volcatius. Large numbers were
called upon for their opinion, and that, too, with the assent of the
consuls: for they wanted the proposal of Bibulus carried. This dispute
was protracted till nightfall, and the senate was dismissed. I happened
to be dining with Pompey on that day, and I seized the opportunity--the
best I have ever had, for since your departure I have never occupied a
more honourable position in the senate than I had on that day--of
talking to him in such a way, that I think I induced him to give up
every other idea and resolve to support your claims. And, indeed, when I
actually hear him talk, I acquit him entirely of all suspicion of
personal ambition: but when I regard his intimates of every rank, I
perceive, what is no secret to anybody, that this whole business has
been long ago corruptly manipulated by a certain coterie, not without
the king's own consent and that of his advisers.

I write this on the 15th of January, before daybreak. To-day there is to
be a meeting of the senate. We shall maintain, as I hope, our position
in the senate as far as it is possible to do so in such an age of
perfidy and unfair dealing. As to an appeal to the people on the
subject, we have, I think, secured that no proposition can be brought
before them without neglect of the auspices or breach of the laws, or,
in fine, without downright violence.[445] The day before my writing
these words a resolution of the senate on these matters of the most
serious character was passed,