utation of _publicani_ who attended the senate to accuse Gabinius.]

[Footnote 587: The praetorian elections were again postponed from the
previous year to the early months of B.C. 54. Appius Claudius found
means to put them off till March by holding meetings of the senate each
day--the electoral _comita_ not being able to meet on the same day as
the senate.]

[Footnote 588: The tribune C. Memmius was prosecuting Gabinius (Letter
CXLVII). The judicial _comita_ could meet, though not the electoral.]

[Footnote 589: Callisthenes of Olynthus wrote (1) a history of the
Trojan war; (2) an account of Alexander the Great. Philistus of Syracuse
(1) a history of Sicily; (2) a life of Dionysius the elder; (3) a life
of Dionysius the younger. He imitated Thucydides (_de Orat._ Sec. 17).]

CXXXV (F VII, 6)

TO C. TREBATIUS TESTA (IN GAUL)

CUMAE (APRIL)

[Sidenote: B.C. 54, AET. 52]

In all my letters to Caesar or Balbus there is a sort of statutory
appendix containing a recommendation of you, and not one of the ordinary
kind, but accompanied by some signal mark of my warm feeling towards
you. See only that you get rid of that feeble regret of yours for the
city and city ways, and carry out with persistence and courage what you
had in your mind when you set out. We, your friends, shall pardon your
going away for that purpose as much as

"The wealthy noble dames who held the Corinthian peak"

pardoned Medea, whom, with hands whitened to the utmost with chalk, she
persuaded not to think ill of her for being absent from her fatherland:
for

"Many have served themselves abroad and served the state as well;
Many have spent their lives at home to be but counted fools."

In which latter category you would have certainly been, had I not forced
you abroad. But I will write more another time. You who learnt to look
out for others, look out, while in Britain, that you are not yourself
taken in my the charioteers; and, since I have begun quoting the
_Medea_, remember this line:

"The sage who cannot serve himself is vainly wise I ween."

Take care of your health.[590]

[Footnote 590: Trebatius is going to join Caesar, who is about to sail to
Britain; hence the jest about the _essedarii_, drivers of Gallic and
British war-chariots. Letter CXXXIII recommended him to Caesar. The lines
quoted are from the _Medea_ of Ennius, adapted or translated from
Euripides. I date these two letters from Cumae, because