According to the story told by Cicero,[251] Clodius was prepared to oppose the Triumvirate; and the other young men of Rome, the _jeunesse doree_, of which both Curio and Clodius were members, were said to be equally hostile to Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus, whose doings in opposition to the constitution were already evident enough; so that it suited Cicero to believe that the rising aristocracy of Rome would oppose them.

But the aristocracy of Rome, whether old or young, cared for nothing but its fish-ponds and its amusements.
Cicero spent the earlier part of the year out of Rome, among his various villas--at Tusculanum, at Antium, and at Formiae.

The purport of all his letters at this period is the same--to complain of the condition of the Republic, and especially of the treachery of his friend Pompey.

Though there be much of despondency in his tone, there is enough also of high spirit to make us feel that his literary aspirations are not out of place, though mingled with his political wailing.

The time will soon come when his trust even in literature will fail him for a while.
Early in the year he declares that he would like to accept a mission to Egypt, offered to him by Caesar and Pompey, partly in order that he might for a while be quit of Rome, and partly that Romans might feel how ill they could do without him.