and no wonder, and almost gives up
hope if Pompey is created dictator. If he assists anyone who vetoes the
dictatorship by his troop and bodyguard,[681] he fears he may excite
Pompey's enmity: if he doesn't do so, he fears the proposal may be
carried by force. He is preparing games on a most magnificent scale, at
a cost, I assure you, that no one has ever exceeded. It is foolish, on
two or even three accounts, to give games that were not demanded--he has
already given a magnificent show of gladiators: he cannot afford it: he
is only an executor, and might have reflected that he is now an
executor, not an aedile. That is about all I had to write. Take care of
yourself, dearest brother.

[Footnote 678: Cicero means, "the substantial gain to be got from your
serving under Caesar in Gaul is the securing of his protection in the
future: all other gains, such as money etc., are merely to be regarded
as securing you from immediate loss in thus going to Gaul: they don't
add anything fresh to our position and prospects."]

[Footnote 679: Quintus had his winter quarters among the Nervii, in a
town near the modern Charleroi. In this winter he was in great danger
from a sudden rising of the Nervii and other tribes (Caes. _B. G._ v.
24-49).]

[Footnote 680: Twenty days of _supplicatio_ had been decreed in honour
of Caesar's campaigns of B.C. 55 (Caes. _B. G._ iv. 38).]

[Footnote 681: His gladiators, which he kept in training for the games
he was going to give in honour of a deceased friend.]

CLIX (Q FR III, 9)

TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS (IN GAUL)

ROME (NOVEMBER OR DECEMBER)

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

In regard to Gabinius, I had not to carry out any of the measures which
you suggested with such affectionate solicitude. "May the earth swallow
me rather, etc.!"[682] I acted with very great dignity and also with the
greatest consideration. I neither bore hardly on him nor helped him. I
gave strong evidence, in other respects I did not stir. The disgraceful
and mischievous result of the trial I bore with the utmost serenity. And
this is the advantage which, after all that has happened, has accrued to
me--that I am not even affected in the least by those evils in the state
and the licentious conduct of the shameless, which used formerly to make
me burst with indignation: for anything more abandoned than the men and
the times in which we are living there cannot be. Accordingly, as no
pleasure can possibly be got fro