April the senate voted on my motion that the question of
the Campanian land should be referred to a full meeting of the senate on
the 15th of May. Could I more decidedly invade the stronghold of his
policy, or shew more clearly that I forgot my own present interests, and
remembered my former political career? On my delivery of this proposal a
great impression was made on the minds not only of those who were bound
to have been impressed, but also of those of whom I had never expected
it. For, after this decree had passed in accordance with my motion,
Pompey, without shewing the least sign of being offended with me,
started for Sardinia and Africa, and in the course of that journey
visited Caesar at Luca. There Caesar complained a great deal about my
motion, for he had already seen Crassus at Ravenna also, and had been
irritated by him against me. It was well known that Pompey was much
vexed at this, as I was told by others, but learnt most definitely from
my brother. For when Pompey met him in Sardinia, a few days after
leaving Luca, he said: "You are the very man I want to see; nothing
could have happened more conveniently. Unless you speak very strongly to
your brother Marcus, you will have to pay up what you guaranteed on his
behalf."[658] I need not go on. He grumbled a great deal: mentioned his
own services to me: recalled what he had again and again said to my
brother himself about the "acts" of Caesar, and what my brother had
undertaken in regard to me; and called my brother himself to witness
that what he had done in regard to my recall he had done with the
consent of Caesar: and asked him to commend to me the latter's policy and
claims, that I should not attack, even if I would not or could not
support them. My brother having conveyed these remarks to me, and
Pompey having, nevertheless, sent Vibullius to me with a message,
begging me not to commit myself on the question of the Campanian land
till his return, I reconsidered my position and begged the state itself,
as it were, to allow me, who had suffered and done so much for it, to
fulfil the duty which gratitude to my benefactors and the pledge which
my brother had given demanded, and to suffer one whom it had ever
regarded as an honest citizen to shew himself an honest man. Moreover,
in regard to all those motions and speeches of mine which appeared to be
giving offence to Pompey, the remarks of a particular set of men, whose
names you must surely guess, kept o