[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 Cæsar 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. We shall come to Milo's trial before long.
[268] The statement is made by Mr. Tyrrell in his biographical introduction to the Epistles.
[269] The 600 years, or anni DC., is used to signify unlimited futurity.
[270] Mommsen's History, book v., ca. v.
[271] Αὐτόμαλος ὠνομάζετο is the phrase of Dio Cassius. "Levissume transfuga" is the translation made by the author of the "Declamatio in Ciceronem." If I might venture on a slang phrase, I should say that αὐτόμαλος was a man who "went off on his own hook." But no man was ever more loyal as a political adherent than Cicero.