74 CICERO. him to send him some panthers from Cilicia, to be ex- hibited on the theatre at Rome, he wrote, in commendar tion of his own actions, that there were no panthers, in CiUcia, for they were all fled to Caria, in anger that in so general a peace they had become the sole objects of attack. On leaving his province, he touched at Rhodes, and tarried for some length of time at Athens, longing much to renew his old studies. He visited the eminent men of learning, and saw his former friends and compan- ions ; and after receiving in Greece the honors that were due to him, returned to the city, where every thing was now just as it were in a flame, breaking out into a civil war. , When the senate would have decreed him a triumph, he told them he had rather, so difierences were accom- modated, follow the triumphal chariot of Caesar. In private, he gave advice to both, writing manjr letters to Ctesar, and personally entreating Pompey ; doing his best to soothe and bring to reason both the one and the other. But when matters became incurable, and Caesar was ap- proaching Rome, and Pompey durst not abide it, but, with many honest citizens, left the city, Cicero, as yet, did not join in the flight, and was reputed to adhere to Csesar. And it is very evident he was in his thoughts much divided, and wavered painfully between both, for he writes in his epistles, '" To which side should I turn ? Pompey has the fair and honorable plea for war ; and Caesar, on the other hand, has managed his affairs better, and is more able to secure himself and his friends. So that I know whom I should fly, not whom I should fly to." But when Trebatius, one of Csesar's friends, by letter signified to him that Caesar thought it was his most de- sirable course to join his party, and partake his hopes, but if he considered himself too old a man for this, then he should retire into Greece, and stay quietly there,
