Note 857 — Chapter IX · EVENTS OF THE YEAR 704.

“Pompey appears to agree with the Senate in requiring absolutely the return of Cæsar on the Ides of Novembre. Curio is decided to do everything rather than suffer this: the rest he cares little about. Our party—you know them well—do not dare to undertake a deadly combat. This is how things stand now. Pompey, who, without attacking Cæsar, will accord nothing to him but what is just, accuses Curio of being an agent of discord. At the bottom, he will not allow that Cæsar be designated consul before he has given up his army and his province, and his great fear is that that may happen. He is by no means spared by Curio, who throws continually his second consulate in his teeth. I will tell you what will come to pass: if they do not use discretion with Curio, Cæsar will gain a defender in him. With the fear which they show of the opposition of a tribune, they will do so much that Cæsar will remain indefinitely master in Gaul.” Cicero, Epist. ad Familiar. VIII. 11.)