the amount of treachery there is in
those leaders of the state, as they wish to be, and might be, if they
had any principle of honour in them. I had felt it, known it--taken in,
abandoned, and cast aside by them, as I had been! and yet my purpose
still was to stick by them in politics. They were the same men as they
ever had been. At last, on your advice, my eyes have been opened. You
will say that your advice only extended to action, not to writing also.
The truth is that I wanted to bind myself to this new combination, that
I might have no excuse for slipping back to those who, even at a time
when I could claim their compassion, never cease being jealous of me.
However, I kept within due limits in my subject, when I did put pen to
paper. I shall launch out more copiously if _he_ shews that he is glad
to receive it, and those make wry faces who are angry at my possessing
the villa which once belonged to Catulus, without reflecting that I
bought it from Vettius: who say that I ought not to have built a town
house, and declare that I ought to have sold. But what is all this to
the fact that, when I have delivered senatorial speeches in agreement
with their own views, their chief pleasure has yet been that I spoke
contrary to Pompey's wishes? Let us have an end of it. Since those who
have no power refuse me their affection, let us take care to secure the
affection of those who have power. You will say, "I could have wished
that you had done so before." I know you did wish it, and that I have
made a real ass of myself. But now the time has come to shew a little
affection for myself, since I can get none from them on any terms.

I am much obliged to you for frequently going to see my house.
Crassipes[487] swallows up my money for travelling. Tullia will go
straight to your suburban villa.[488] That seems the more convenient
plan. Consequently she will be at your town house the next day: for what
can it matter to you? But we shall see. Your men have beautified my
library by making up the books and appending title-slips. Please thank
them.

[Footnote 486: [Greek: palinphdia]--something he had apparently written
and sent to Pompey or Caesar, giving in his adhesion to the policy of the
triumvirs. It can hardly have been the speech _de Provinciis
Consularibus_ or the _oratio pro Balbo_, which had probably not yet been
delivered, for the arrangement recommended in the former speech was not
that of the conference of Luca, while