[245] His province also comprehended Pisidia, Pamphylia, and Cyprus. The proconsulship of Cicero was in B.C. 51, though he had been consul in B.C. 63. Cicero went to Cilicia against his will (Ad Diversos, iii. 2). Pompeius had got the Senate (B.C. 52) to pass an order that no person should hold a province within five years after being consul or prætor. This was aimed at Cæsar, if he should get a second consulship. Pompeius also wished to have Cicero out of the way, and the provinces were to be supplied with governors from among those who did not come within the terms of the new rule: and Cicero was one of them (Cicero, Ad Diversos, iii. 2; Ad Attic. vi. 6).
[246] He was the third Cappadocian king of this name. This unlucky king was a debtor of Cn. Pompeius and M. Junius Brutus, the most distinguished Roman money-lender of his day (Cicero, Ad Attic. vi. 1-3). Both Pompeius and Brutus were pressing the king for money. Deiotarus also sent to Ariobarzanes to try to get some money out of him for Brutus. The king’s answer was that he had none, and Cicero says that he believed he told the truth, for that no country was in a more impoverished state and nobody more beggared than the king. Cicero dunned the king continually with letters, but he was not particularly well pleased with his commission (Ad Attic. vi. 2). The end was that the king provided for the payment of about one hundred talents to Brutus during Cicero’s year of government. He had promised Pompeius two hundred in six mouths, which, as a judicious commentator remarks, is not worth so much as a security for one hundred. These money doings of the supposed patriot Brutus should be well examined by those who still retain an opinion of the virtues of this Republican hero.
[247] There seems no reason to doubt that Cicero’s administration of his province was just and mild. Plutarch has apparently derived some of the facts here mentioned from Cicero himself (Ad Attic. vi. 2): “Aditus autem ad me minime provinciales; nihil per cubicularium: ante lucem inambulabam domi, ut olim candidatus.”
[248] Cicero’s exploits were such as would not have been recorded, if he had not been his own historian. In a letter to Cato (Ad Diversos, xv. 4), he gives a pretty full account of his operations; and he asks Cato to use his influence to get him the honour of a Supplicatio or Public Thanksgiving. Cato’s short reply, which he says is longer than his letters usually are, is a model in its way.
[249] So it is in Plutarch’s text: it may be the blunder of Plutarch, or the blunder of his copyists. The true name is M. Cælius (Cic. Ad Diversos, ii. 11), who was curule ædile B.C. 51. The saying about the panthers is in this letter of Cicero, who had set the panther-hunters to work.
Cicero returned to Rome in B.C. 50. He mentions (Ad Attic. vi. 7) his intention to call at Rhodes.
[250] The events of this chapter, which belong to B.C. 49, are told at length in the Lives of Pompeius and Cæsar. Cicero’s irresolution is well marked in his own letters; in one of which (Ad Attic. viii. 7, referred to by Kaltwasser) he says:—“Ego quem fugiam habeo, quem sequar non habeo.”
There are no letters extant of Trebatius to the purport which Plutarch states, but Cæsar wrote to Cicero and begged him to stay at Rome. Cicero (Ad Attic. ix. 16) has given a copy of Cæsar’s letter; and a copy of another letter from Cæsar (Ad Attic. x. 8), in which he urges Cicero to keep quiet. There seems to be no doubt that Trebatius had been employed by Cæsar to write to Cicero and speak to him about remaining neutral at least. Cicero had an interview with Cæsar at Formiæ, after Cæsar’s return from Brundusium (Ad Atticum, ix. 18, 19; Ad Diversos, iv. 1). The letter last referred to is addressed to Servius Sulpicius.
[251] L. Domitius Ahenobarbus. See the Life of Cæsar, c. 34.
[252] See the Life of Pompeius, c. 37, notes.