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EPISTULAE AD FAMILIARES, IV. i.

these calamities long before they happened, were the champion of peace both during « and after your consulship. But as for me, though I approved your policy and held the same opinion myself, I made no headway. You see I had arrived late, I was all alone, I was supposed to be ill-informed as to the facts, and I had suddenly found myself in the midst of a throng of men mad with the lust of battle. Now that it seems that we can be of no assistance at all to the Republic, if there is anything in which we may take thought for our own selves — not in the way of retaining anything worth retaining of our pristine position, but of investing our grief with what dignity we may — there is nobody in the world with whom I think I ought to confer rather than with yourself. For you never forget either the examples of those famous men whom we ought to resemble, or the maxims of those wise men whom you have always venerated. And I should have myself written to you before to warn you that it would be useless for you to attend the Senate, or rather the assembly of senators,* had I not been afraid of hurting the feel- ings of the man who begged of me to follow your lead. And, indeed, when that same person urged me to attend the Senate, I made it clear to him that I should repeat exactly what you had said about peace and the Spains.

You see how the matter stands ; that the whole : world, ablaze with war, is allotted to the various military commands, while the City, bereft of laws, law-courts, justice, and credit, is left a prey to the plunderer and the incendiary. Thus it is impossible for me to have the slightest idea what I can hope for, nor even what in the circumstances I can dare to

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