[336] The kindness has been all on the side of Atticus, who will therefore be attached to the object of it—for the benefactor loves more than the benefited.
[337] A privilegium was a law referring to a particular person, which was forbidden by the twelve tables, and if it was shewn to be unconstitutional a decree of the senate could declare it void. But Cicero seems to think that such a proceeding of the senate would give a possibility of raising the question afresh.
[338] The first bill named no one, but enacted that "anyone who had put a citizen to death uncondemned should be forbidden fire and water." The second, "that M. Tullius be forbidden fire and water." Cicero says that the former did not touch him, I suppose, because it could not be retrospective. This is in accordance with the view of Cæsar, who approved of the law, but said that old sores ought not to be ripped up—οὐ μὴν καὶ προσήκειν ἐπὶ παρεληλυθόσι τοιοῦτόν τινα νόμον συγγράφεσθει (Dio, xxxviii. 17).
[339] Because it shewed that he considered himself as coming under the new law.
[340] Letter [LXVIII], p. [154].
[341] L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, who was a prætor this year.
[342] Though Cicero uses tantum ... quantum here, he does not mean that Atticus failed to love him enough—that would have been too unreasonable. In a certain way he means that he loved him too much. He allowed his spontaneous feelings full vent, without acting with the cool wisdom which he would have shewn in fulfilling a duty or moral obligation. It is more fully expressed above. Still, it was a difficult thing to say, and he doesn't succeed in making it very clear.
[343] Reading lætæ for lectæ.
[344] L. Livineius Regulus, whom Cicero (F. xiii. 60) calls a very intimate friend, and says that his freedman Trypho stood his friend in the hour of need. He seems to have been condemned (in B.C. 56?) for something, but he afterwards served under Iulius Cæsar (B. Afr. § 9). The freedman's full name was L. Livineius Trypho.
[345] About Appius acting as prosecutor of Quintus. He was a nephew of P. Clodius. See Letter CCXXII.