was at heart a Pompeian, and Greece was full of republican exiles to whom the presence of a sympathetic proconsul was a great comfort and protection. Nevertheless, Servius, far from congratulating himself that he has played his cards well, is "deeply troubled, and in the midst of the public misery is tormented by a grief peculiar to himself."[1] The reproaches of conscience, felt by one who had been hardly more than a neutral, may serve to explain the bitter wrath of those members of the democratic party who had actively aided Cæsar in arms, and who now found that they had been unconsciously conspiring to destroy the last remnant of popular government, and to set up an unmitigated despotism. This disappointment, sharpened by self-reproach, armed against Cæsar the daggers of some of his best officers, Decimus Brutus, Trebonius, and Galba.
Servius Sulpicius is best known to modern readers as "the Roman friend of Rome's least mortal mind," part of whose beautiful letter of consolation on the death of Tullia is paraphrased by Byron:
"Wandering in youth, I traced the path of him,
The Roman friend of Rome's least mortal mind,
The friend of Tully: as my bark did skim
The bright blue waters with a fanning wind,
Came Megara before me, and behind
Ægina lay, Piræus on the right
And Corinth on the left; I lay reclined
Along the prow, and saw all these unite
In ruin, even as he had seen the desolate sight.
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The Roman saw these tombs in his own age
These sepulchres of cities, which excite
- ↑ Ad Fam., iv., 3, 1.
