and I am so anxious that I have no inclination for such study.

Well, I have told you my fears, my hopes, and my future plans; it is
your turn now to write and tell me what you have been doing, what you
are doing now, and what your plans are, and I hope your letter will be a
more cheerful one than mine. If you have nothing to complain about, it
will be no small consolation to me in my general upset. Farewell.


1.XXIII.--TO POMPEIUS FALCO.

You ask me whether I think you ought to practise in the courts while you
are tribune. The answer entirely depends on the conception you have of
the tribuneship, whether you think it is a mere empty honour, a name
with no real dignity, or an office of the highest sanctity, and one that
no one, not even the holder himself, ought to slight in the least
degree. When I was tribune, I may have been wrong for thinking that I
was somebody, but I acted as if I were, and I abstained from practising
in the courts. In the first place, I thought it below my dignity that
I, at whose entrance every one ought to rise and give way, should stand
to plead while all others were sitting; or that I, who could impose
silence on all and sundry, should be ordered to be silent by a water-
clock; that I, whom it was a crime to interrupt, should be subjected
even to abuse, and that I should make people think I was a spiritless
fellow if I let an insult pass unnoticed, or proud and puffed up if I
resented and avenged it. Again, there was this embarrassing thought
always before me. Supposing appeal was made to me as tribune either by
my client or by the other party to the suit, what should I do? Lend him
aid, or keep silence and say not a word, and thus forswear my magistracy
and reduce myself to a mere private citizen? Moved by these