with them his daughter Tullia, who had come thus far to meet her father. By a happy coincidence[1] the day was the anniversary of the foundation of the town and was likewise Tullia's birthday.
Three days later Cicero received the news that the bill had actually passed on the 4th of August. Every circumstance served to heighten his triumph. The immense crowds of citizens from the country, who had flocked to Rome[2] and now assembled on the Campus Martius to proclaim their good-will to Cicero, afforded a striking contrast to the handful of roughs and slaves whose assent had given the form of law to his banishment. The assembly was by centuries, the most solemn and august fashion for the utterance of the popular voice; the bill was introduced by both the consuls; Pompey himself urged its acceptance and delivered a panegyric on Cicero; men of rank and position not only appeared to give their votes, but were proud to discharge in person the subordinate functions of distributing the ballots and counting the votes. Clodius was present and was permitted to say what he had to say against the proposal; but the feeling of the assembled multitude was practically unanimous, and every century voted in the affirmative. So far as the unwieldy forms of a mass-meeting permit a real expression of the will of the majority, this was a truly representative assembly, and this decree stands almost alone in the latter
