Note 982 — Chapter III · (691-695.)

Cicero himself acknowledged that these accusations were commonplaces for the necessity of the cause. In a letter to Atticus, he describes a scene which passed in the Senate a short time after the return of Pompey to Rome. He tells us that this general satisfied himself with approving all the acts of the Senate, without imputing anything personal to him (Cicero); “but Crassus,” he continues, “rose and spoke with much eloquence.... Brief, he attacked all the commonplace of sword and flame, which I have been accustomed to treat, you know in how many ways, in my orations, of which you are the sovereign critic.” (Cicero, Letters to Atticus, I. 14.)