Note 167 — LIFE OF CICERO.

P. Vatinius was afterwards consul B.C. 47. There is extant a speech of Cicero against him, in which of course he has a very bad character given to him. Kaltwasser says that a thick neck was considered by the Romans as a sign of a shameless man, and he refers to the Life of Marius, c. 29, where a like expression is used. Cicero’s neck, according to his own account, was very thin, and he thought it no good sign of his strength. However this may be as to the thickness of the neck of Vatinius, it was clearly not a thing that he could alter.