h such fervour to the promotion of Pompey's
glory, you can suppose certain men to be your friends on that
account.[731] Wherefore, seeing that you are seeking the highest place
in the state, and at the same time that there do exist sentiments
opposed to you, you must positively employ every method, and all your
vigilance, labour, and attention to business.

V. Again, the canvass for office resolves itself into an activity of two
kinds, of which one is concerned with the loyalty of friends, the other
with the feelings of the people. The loyalty of friends must be secured
by acts of kindness and attention, by length of time, and by an easy and
agreeable temper. But this word "friends" has a wider application during
a canvass than in other times of our life. For whosoever gives any sign
of an inclination to you, or habitually visits at your house, must be
put down in the category of friends. But yet the most advantageous thing
is to be beloved and pleasant in the eyes of those who are friends on
the more regular grounds of relationship by blood or marriage, of
membership of the same club, or of some close tie or other. Farther, you
must take great pains that, in proportion as a man is most intimate and
most closely connected with your household, he should love you and
desire your highest honour--as, for instance, your tribesmen,
neighbours, clients, and finally your freedmen and even your slaves; for
nearly all the talk which forms one's public reputation emanates from
domestic sources. In a word, you must secure friends of every class: for
show--men conspicuous for their office or name, who, even if they do not
give any actual assistance in canvassing, yet add some dignity to the
candidate; to maintain your just rights--magistrates, consuls first and
then tribunes; to secure the votes of the centuries--men of eminent
popularity. Those who either have gained or hope to gain the vote of a
tribe or century, or any other advantage, through your influence, take
all pains to collect and secure. For during recent years men of ambition
have exerted themselves with all their might and main to become sure of
getting from their tribesmen what they sought. Do you also do your very
best, by every means in your power, to make such men attached to you
from the bottom of their hearts and with the most complete devotion. If,
indeed, men were as grateful as they ought to be, all this should be
ready to your hand, as I trust in fact that it