Note 1212 — Chapter V · CONSULSHIP OF CÆSAR AND BIBULUS. (695.)

“I receive from Cæsar the most flattering invitations, asking me to join him as lieutenant.” (Cicero, Letters to Atticus, II. 17.)—“He has got my enemy (Clodius) transferred to the plebeian order: either because he was irritated to see that even his kindness could not persuade me to join his side, or because he yielded to the urgency of others. My refusal could not have been regarded as an insult, for subsequently to it he advised me, nay, even entreated me, to serve him as lieutenant. I did not accept this office, not because I thought it beneath me, but because I was far from suspecting that the State could possibly have, after Cæsar, any consuls so infamous as these (Piso and Gabinius).” (Cicero, Oration about the Consular Provinces, 17.)