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Epistulae ad Familiares, I. vb.

but as to what is still in the region of conjecture and only seems likely to happen, I think I ought to write to you myself. When Pompey spoke in defence of Milo[1] before the people on February the 6th, he was harassed with shouts of abuse, and again harshly and offensively called to account in the Senate by Cato,[2] while his friends uttered no word of protest, and he seemed to me to be profoundly agitated. So it looks as though he has entirely dropped the Alexandrine business, which, so far as we are concerned, is as it was; for the Senate has deducted nothing from your claims except what, for the same religious reasons, can be granted to nobody else.

2 What I now hope for, what I am striving to bring about, is that the king, when he understands that he cannot manage to be restored, as he had intended, by Pompey, and that, unless he is reinstated through your agency, he will be a pariah and an outcast, should come and visit you; and that is what he unquestionably will do, if Pompey gives the slightest hint that he has no objection: but you know how dilatory and reserved our friend is. Still we are leaving nothing undone which is relevant to the matter. All the other injurious proposals of Cato,[2] we shall, I hope, have no difficulty in resisting. You have not a single friend that I can see among the consulars except Hortensius and Lucullus. The others are either covertly hostile or do not dissemble their resentment.

You must yourself keep a high and heroic heart, and assure yourself that when this paltry fellow's[2] attack has been quelled, you will find the

  1. ↑ T. Annius Milo, the fierce opponent of P. Clodius from 57 to the latter's murder in 52. This year he was being defended by Pompey, who, later on, especially after Clodius's murder, directed all his influence against him.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 C. Porcius Cato; see the preceding letter, § 2, note a.
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