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I had learnt from my own brother that you had been no enemy of mine even in those days^[1] when it was almost inevitable that you should act the part of one? When, however, a reconciliation eagerly sought on either side had been arranged between us, what single request of yours during your consulship^[2] did I fail to grant, whatever it was you desired me either to do or to support with my vote? What single commission did you give me when I escorted you to Puteoli that I did not execute more conscientiously than you even expected I would? ⁹ But if it be the main characteristic of the crafty man to submit everything to the test of selfish expediency, what, I ask you, could be more expedient for me, what better suited to my interests, than a close alliance with a man of preeminently noble birth and the highest official rank, whose resources and intellectual ability, whose children, and relations by marriage and by blood, might either confer upon me great distinction, or afford me great protection? And yet it is true that in seeking your friendship I did have my eye on all these advantages, and that was not a form of craftiness, but showed rather a considerable degree of wisdom. Moreover, how strong are the bonds that bind me to you—and I rejoice in the bondage—the similarity of our tastes, the sweetness of our intimacy, our joy in life, and in the way we live it, the mutual pleasure we find in conversation, and our deeper literary researches.^[3] But these are private bonds. What then of the public ties that bind us—a famous reconciliation, in which not even by inadvertency can a false step be made without raising the suspicion of insincerity?—-our common membership of a most majestic priesthood? In