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and his house on the Palatine and villas at Formiae and Tusculum were pillaged and dismantled.

§ 3. Cicero went to Brundisium and thence to Thessalonica, where he sojourned for seven months at the house of his friend, the quaestor Cn. Plancius. As the year went on the situation at Rome became brighter for him; Clodius had offended Pompey by aiding the escape from Rome of the Armenian prince Tigranes whom Pompey had captured, by defeating the consul Gabinius in a street riot, and even forcing Pompey to shut himself up in his house. Moreover, Lentulus Spinther, one of the consuls elected, was personally devoted to Cicero, and the other, Metellus Nepos, a friend of Pompey; while among the new tribunes T. Annius Milo, T. Fadius, and P. Sestius strenuously advocated Cicero's recall. His son-in-law also, C. Calpurnius Piso, who had married Cicero's daughter Tullia in 63, and was now quaestor, exercised what influence he had in the interests of his father-in-law.

§ 1. No sooner had the consul Lentulus entered into office on January I than he brought before the Senate, with the approval of Pompey, the question of Cicero's recall; and despite the obstruction of two of the tribunes, the people, led by Fabricius and all the praetors (except Appius Claudius Pulcher, Clodius's brother), passed in their Assembly (the comitia centuriata) on January 23 a provisional decree recalling Cicero. The Senate thanked Cn. Plancius and others for sheltering Cicero in his