that those who could injure me should not wish to do so? For as for our friend Cato, your regard for him does not yield to mine; at the same time, with the very best intentions and in all good faith he sometimes does mischief to the State. For he makes his proposals as if he were speaking in Plato's Republic instead of in Romulus' gutter. What can be fairer than that every man should be put on his trial, who has taken a bribe for his verdict? Such was Cato's proposal, and the Senate agreed. So the Knights declare war against the House, not against me, for I protested. What could be more barefaced than the tax-farmers repudiating their bargain? For all that we had better put up with the loss for the sake of retaining the good-will of the order. Cato resisted and gained his point. And so now when we have a consul shut up in prison and riot continually afoot, not a finger has been stirred to help by those who used to throng to the defence of the constitution whenever I or my immediate successors in the consulship called for their assistance."
With this quotation we leave the politics and parties of Rome for a moment, to turn to other matters which are wanting to complete the picture of Cicero's life during the years following his consulship. In the next chapter we shall find what use Cæsar made of the political material which lay awaiting his return.
Only two of Cicero's extant speeches belong to this period. The suppression of Catiline's conspiracy had been followed up during the year 62 B.C. by prosecutions directed against his accomplices. Cicero mentions the names of several who were condemned by
