Britannica on Cicero.
[255] Ad Att., lib.ii., 9.
[256] Ibid.: "Festive, mihi crede, et minore sonitu, quam putaram, orbis hic in republica est conversus." "Orbis hic," this round body of three is the Triumvirate.
[257] We cannot but think of the threat Horace made, Sat., lib.ii., 1: "At ille Qui me commorit, melius non tangere! clamo, Flebit, et insignis tota cantabitur urbe." [258] Ad Att., lib.ii., 11: "Da ponderosam aliquam epistolam." [259] Josephus, lib.xviii., ca.

5.
[260] Ad Att., lib.ii., 16.
[261] Ad Att., lib.ii., 18: "A Caesare valde liberaliter invitor in legationem illam, sibi ut sim legatus; atque etiam libera legatio voti causa datur." [262] De Legibus, lib.iii., ca.

viii.: "Jam illud apertum prefecto est nihil esse turpius, quam quenquam legari nisi republica causa." [263] It may be seen from this how anxious Caesar was to secure his silence, and yet how determined not to screen him unless he could secure his silence.
[264] Ad Quintum, lib.i., 2.
[265] Of this last sentence I have taken a translation given by Mr.Tyrrell, who has introduced a special reading of the original which the sense seems to justify.
[266] Macrobius, Saturnalia, lib.ii., ca.

i.: We are told that Cicero had been called the consular buffoon.

"And I," says Macrobius, "if it would not be too long, could relate how by his jokes he has brought off the most guilty criminals." Then he tells the story of Lucius Flaccus.
[267] See the evidence of Asconius on this point, as to which Cicero's conduct has been much mistaken.