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Epistulae ad Familiares, I. iii.-iv.

² I earnestly beg of you not to let him be disappointed in this anticipation, and I commend to your care all his business affairs, his freedmen, his agents, and his slaves; and especially do I ask you to confirm T. Ampius's^[1] decrees in connexion with his case, and in all respects so to deal with him that he may realize that my recommendation of him was no conventional formality. Farewell.

IV

To the same

Rome, January, 56 B.C.

¹ On the fifteenth of January we brilliantly maintained our position in the Senate; we had already on the preceding day given the coup de grâce to that motion of Bibulus concerning the three commissioners, and the only subject of controversy left over was Volcatius's motion, though the opposition spun the affair out by various pettifogging objections. We upheld our cause in a full house, in spite of the same endless variety of arguments and the undisguised jealousy of those^[2] who were for taking the affair of the king out of your hands and putting it elsewhere. On that day we found Curio disagreeable, Bibulus much more reasonable, in fact almost friendly: Caninius and Cato assured the house that they would pass no law before the elections. As you are aware, the Lex Pupia^[3] precludes the holding

↑ He was Lentulus' predecessor as proconsul of Cilicia.
↑ Tyrell reads non for in before magna varietate and translates "there being no great diversity of opinion, but great indignation against those," etc.
↑ The law which forbade the holding of the Senate on dies comitiales, i.e. days on which any of the Comitia were, or might be, held; now all the days in January after the 15th were dies comitiales; but according to another law, the Lex Gabinia, the whole time of the Senate during February had to be devoted to receiving and discussing disputations (legationes) from the provinces or foreign states. Thus there could be no meetings of the Senate for ordinary purposed either in January (after the 15th) or in February, unless the business of the deputations was either disposed of or deferred to some later date.

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[1] He was Lentulus' predecessor as proconsul of Cilicia.

[2] Tyrell reads non for in before magna varietate and translates "there being no great diversity of opinion, but great indignation against those," etc.

[3] The law which forbade the holding of the Senate on dies comitiales, i.e. days on which any of the Comitia were, or might be, held; now all the days in January after the 15th were dies comitiales; but according to another law, the Lex Gabinia, the whole time of the Senate during February had to be devoted to receiving and discussing disputations (legationes) from the provinces or foreign states. Thus there could be no meetings of the Senate for ordinary purposed either in January (after the 15th) or in February, unless the business of the deputations was either disposed of or deferred to some later date.

[1]

[2]

[3]