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sentative, makes no secret of countering us by means of bribery; the business is being managed with the aid of those very financiers who advanced the money for it when you were in Rome. Any—and they are but few—who are well disposed to the king, are unanimous in wishing that the matter should be put in Pompey's hands, while the Senate accepts the fictitious plea of religious scruples, not for any reason of religion, but it is jealous of Pompey, and disgusted at the king's lavish bribery.

² As regards Pompey, I never cease urging and imploring him—nay even frankly rebuking him, and warning him, not to incur a storm of public obloquy; but he has left absolutely no room for any entreaties or admonitions of mine; both in his ordinary conversation, and publicly in the Senate he has advocated your cause with as much eloquence, earnestness, enthusiasm, and energy as anybody could possibly have done, while testifying at the same time in the highest terms to your good offices towards him and his own affection for you. Marcellinus,^[1] you are aware, is angry with you; in all else, however, if you except this affair of the king, he makes us think that he will support you right gallantly. We accept what he offers; but as to his determination to bring the religious question before the Senate (and indeed he has repeatedly done so), nothing can induce him to give it up.

³ What has happened up to the 13th of January (I am writing in the early morning of that day) is this: Hortensius, Lucullus, and I are in favour of yielding to the religious objections as regards the army; for in no other way could our object be attained; but according to the decree already passed on your own motion,