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danger of bloodshed, and a look was fixed into that runaway slave who had usurped the name of Caius Marius. And all these things he did in concert with his colleag. Some other things that were done were the acts of Dolabella^[1] alone; but, if his colleag had not been absent, would, I believe, have been done by both of them in concert.

I have now explained to you, O conscript fathers, my design in leaving the city. Now I will set before you, also, my intention in returning which may, perhaps, appear more unaccountable. As I had avoided Brundusium, and the ordinary route into Greece, not without good reason, on the first of August I arrived at Syracuse, because the passage from that city into Greece was said to be a good one. And that city, with which I had so intimate a connection, could not, tho it was very eager to do so, detain me more than one night. I was afraid that my sudden arrival among my friends might cause some suspicion if I remained there at all. But after the winds had driven me, on my departure from Sicily, to Leucopetra, which is a promontory of the Rhegian district, I went up the gulf from that point, with the view of crossing over. And I had not advanced far before I was driven back by a foul wind to the very place which I had just quitted. And as the night was stormy, and as I had lodged that night in the villa of Publius Valerius, my

1. ↑ Cicero's son-in-law, who had joined Cæsar in the Civil War, and after Cæsar's death became consul, acting with Mark Antony.