[67] Cicero sent to Milo at Massilia the oration which he meant to have delivered, the one which we still have. Milo, after reading it, remarked, "I am glad it was not delivered, for I should then have been acquitted, and never have known the delicate flavor of these Massilian mullets."
[68] Cæsar's government would expire at the end of B.C. 49, and he had therefore determined to obtain the Consulship for B.C. 48, since otherwise he would become a private person.
[69] The crossing of this stream was in reality a declaration of war against the Republic, and later writers relate that upon arriving at the Rubicon Cæsar long hesitated whether he should take this irrevocable step, and that, after pondering many hours, he at length exclaimed, "The die is cast," and plunged into the river. But there is not a word of this in Cæsar's own narrative.
[70] In reality on the 6th of June.
[71] Triumviri Reipulicæ constituendæ.
[72] Antony retaliated by sending Octavia a bill of divorce.
[73] Gibbon.
[74] These were probably composed in the Saturnian metre, the oldest species of versification among the Romans, in which much greater license was allowed in the laws of quantity than in the metres which were borrowed from the Greeks.
[75] The name signifies a mixture or medley. Hence a lex per saturam lata is a law which contained several distinct regulations at once.
[76] Georg., iii., 41.