se finished: the part over the sitting-rooms,
which you did not wish to have many gables, now slopes gracefully
towards the roof of the lower colonnade. Our boy, in my absence, did not
cease working with his rhetoric master. You have no reason for being
anxious about his education, for you know his ability, and I see his
application. Everything else I take it upon myself to guarantee, with
full consciousness that I am bound to make it good.

As yet there are three parties prosecuting Gabinius: first, L. Lentulus,
son of the _flamen_, who has entered a prosecution for _lese
majeste_;[626] secondly, Tib. Nero, with good names at the back of his
indictment; thirdly, C. Memmius the tribune in conjunction with L.
Capito. He came to the walls of the city on the 19th of September,
undignified and neglected to the last degree. But in the present state
of the law courts I do not venture to be confident of anything. As Cato
is unwell, he has not yet been formally indicted for extortion. Pompey
is trying hard to persuade me to be reconciled to him, but as yet he has
not succeeded at all, nor, if I retain a shred of liberty, will he
succeed. I am very anxious for a letter from you. You say that you have
been told that I was a party to the coalition of the consular
candidates--it is a lie. The compacts made in that coalition, afterwards
made public by Memmius, were of such a nature that no loyal man ought to
have been a party to them;[627] nor at the same time was it possible for
me to be a party to a coalition from which Messalla was excluded, who is
thoroughly satisfied with my conduct in every particular, as also, I
think, is Memmius. To Domitius himself I have rendered many services,
which he desired and asked of me. I have put Scaurus under a heavy
obligation by my defence of him. It is as yet very uncertain both when
the elections will be and who will be consuls.

Just as I was folding up this epistle letter-carriers arrived from you
and Caesar (20th September) after a journey of twenty days. How anxious I
was! How painfully I was affected by Caesar's most kind letter![628] But
the kinder it was, the more sorrow did his loss occasion me. But to turn
to your letter. To begin with, I reiterate my approval of your staying
on, especially as, according to your account, you have consulted Caesar
on the subject. I wonder that Oppius has anything to do with Publius,
for I advised against it. Farther on in your letter you say that I am