[396] I have translated Klotz's text. That given by Prof. Tyrrell is, to me at any rate, quite unintelligible. Cicero's legatio under Pompey appears to have been, in fact, honorary, or libera, for he doesn't seem to have done anything. He wishes to reserve the right of resigning it to stand for the censorship (censors were elected in the following year), or of turning it into a votiva legatio, to visit certain sacred places on the plea of performing a vow, thus getting the opportunity, if he desired it, of retiring temporarily from Rome in a dignified manner. The force of prope seems to be "almost any, I care not what." It was not likely that a man with his stormy past would do for the delicate duties of the censorship, and he would save appearances by going on a votiva legatio. See Letter [XLIV].
[397] Facile careo, others read non facile, "I don't like being without a suburban residence."
[398] The thing which brought him "nothing but dishonour" was his quitting Rome, and the consequent expenses connected with winning over friends, or paying for Milo's bravoes to face those of Clodius. In the last part of the sentence he seems to mean that, had his supporters backed him properly, he would have got everything necessary to make good his losses from the liberality of the senate. Others explain that defensores really means Pompey only.
[399] This and the omission of his wife in the next clause, as the similar hint at the end of the last letter, seem to point to some misunderstanding with Terentia, with whom, however, a final rupture was postponed for nearly twelve years (B.C. 46.)
[400] See [last letter]. The porticus Catuli had been, at any rate, partly demolished by Clodius to make way for his larger scheme of building, which was to take in part of Cicero's "site." See pro Cæl. §79.
[401] Next door to Cicero's own house.
[402] He would avoid prosecution de vi by getting elected to the ædileship for B.C. 56, for actual magistrates were rarely prosecuted; but he, in this case, actually avoided it by getting a consul and tribune to forbid it by edict (pro Sest. § 89).
[403] Designatorem. This may mean (1) an official who shewed people to their places in the theatre; (2) an undertaker's man, who marshalled funerals. To the latter office a certain infamia was attached. We know nothing more of Decimus (see pro Domo, § 50). Gellius was an eques and a stepson of L. Marcius Philippus. He afterwards gave evidence against Sestius for vis (see pro Sest. § 110). Cicero calls him the mover of all seditions (in Vatin. § 4), and one of Clodius's gang (de Har. Resp. § 59). See [next letter].
[404] Perhaps by M. Antonius. See 2 Phil. § 21; pro Mil. § 40.
[405] Lit. "made all Catilines Acidini." Acidinus was the cognomen of several distinguished men. In Leg. Agr. ii. § 64, Cicero classes the Acidini among men "respectable not only for the public offices they had held, and for their services to the state, but also for the noble way in which they had endured poverty." There does not, however, seem any very good reason known for their becoming proverbial as the antithesis to revolutionaries.