f Africanus, Philus,
Laelius, and Manilius. I have added two young men, Q. Tubero and P.
Rutilius, and the two sons-in-law of Laelius, Scaevola and Fannius. So I
am thinking how (since I employ introductions to each book, as
Aristotle does in what he calls his "Exoterics") to contrive some
pretext for naming your friend in a natural way, as I understand is your
wish. May I only be enabled to carry out my attempt! For, as you cannot
but observe, I have undertaken a subject wide, difficult, and requiring
the utmost leisure--the very thing that, above all others, I lack. In
those books which you commend you complain of the absence of Scaevola
among the speakers. Well, I did not withdraw him without a set purpose,
but I did exactly what that god of our idolatry, Plato, did in his
Republic. When Socrates had come to the Piraeus on a visit to Cephalus, a
wealthy and cheerful old man, during all the introductory conversation
the old man takes part in the discussion; then, after having himself
made a speech very much to the point, he says that he wants to go away
to attend on the religious rites, and does not return again. I believe
Plato hardly thought that it would be quite natural, if he kept a man of
that age any longer in a conversation so protracted. I thought that I
was bound to be still more careful in the case of Scaevola, who was at
the age and with the broken health as you remember he then was, and who
had enjoyed such high offices, that it was scarcely in accordance with
etiquette for him to be staying several days in the Tusculan villa of
Crassus. Besides, the conversation in the first book was not unconnected
with Scaevola's special pursuits: the other books, as you know, contain a
technical discussion. In such I was unwilling that that facetious
veteran, as you know he was, should take part.

As to Pilia's business, which you mention, I will see to it. For the
matter is quite clear, as you say, from the information supplied by
Aurelianus, and in managing it I shall have also an opportunity of
glorifying myself in my Tullia's eyes. I am supporting Vestorius: for I
know that it gratifies you, and I am careful that he would understand
that to be the case. But do you know the sort of man he is? Though he
has two such good-natured people to deal with, nothing can exceed his
impracticability. Now as to what you ask about Gaius Cato. You know that
he was acquitted under the _lex Iunia Licinia_:[601] I have to tell you
t