[576] Some petty prince of Bostra (Bozra), in Arabia, of whom we know nothing.
[577] Quintus was expecting, what he got, the offer of serving under Cæsar as legatus. Cæsar was preparing for his second invasion of Britain.
[578] Which will prevent meetings of the senate, and so give me no news to send you.
[579] There is a double entendre. Cold weather will prevent the meetings of the senate actually, but metaphorically politics will be also cold and dull, and that dullness will probably be nowhere so evident as in the deserted state of the consul Appius's house, which in all probability will miss its usual bevy of callers. This explanation—put forward by Prof. Tyrrell—is not wholly satisfactory, yet it is the best that has been given.
[580] Pompey had two functions at this time: he was governor of Spain and præfectus annonæ. The latter office, as being extraordinary, might be, perhaps, held with the other without an actual breach of law, but it was certainly against the spirit of the constitution. Cicero knows that Pompey's staying in Italy and governing his province by legati will not be acceptable to Cæsar, and he alludes to it in carefully guarded terms. He had been named his legatus when Pompey first undertook the care of the corn-supply, but it does not seem as if he ever seriously contemplated going on actual service.
[581] L. Cornelius Balbus, whom Cicero defended, and who acted as Cæsar's agent.
[582] The name of the person jocosely referred to by Cæsar is uncertain, from corruption of the text. Q. Lepta is Cæsar's præfectus fabrum.
[583] We cannot tell the allusion, not having the letter of Quintus. But he seems to have used the expression for something incongruous either in politics, or in regard to his contemplated services with Cæsar.
[584] I.e., the day he had to appear for trial, usually fixed by the prætor on the tenth day from the notice of prosecution. Cælius had been acqiuitted in B.C. 56, when Cicero defended him; this second trial appears to have in some way fallen through. The prætor Domitius is said to be Cn. Domitius Ahenobarbus, son of Lucius, but he was much too young to have been prætor this year. The former trial of Cælius (B.C. 56) had been before Cn. Comitius Calvinus, hence a difficulty about this passage. For the prætor Domitius of this year is not known. Domitius Calvinus was prætor B.C. 56.
[585] The publicani of Syria were enraged with Gabinius for neglecting his province while going to Egypt, thus allowing the pirates so to plunder that they could not collect enough dues to recoup them for their bargain to the state (Dio, xxxix. 59).