witness," and demanded that the matter should be put to the vote.
Cicero, accordingly, taking their opinions, a full senate decreed
"that the testimony of Tarquinius appeared false; that he himself
should be kept in prison; and that no further liberty of speaking[229]
should be granted him, unless he should name the person at whose
instigation he had fabricated so shameful a calumny."

There were some, at that time, who thought that this affair was
contrived by Publius Autronius, in order that the interest of Crassus,
if he were accused, might, from participation in the danger, more
readily screen the rest. Others said that Tarquinius was suborned by
Cicero, that Crassus might not disturb the state, by taking upon him,
as was his custom,[230] the defense of the criminals. That this attack
on his character was made by Cicero, I afterward heard Crassus himself
assert.

XLIX. Yet, at the same time, neither by interest, nor by solicitation,
nor by bribes, could Quintus Catulus, and Caius Piso, prevail upon
Cicero to have Caius Caesar falsely accused, either by means of the
Allobroges, or any other evidence. Both of these men were at bitter
enmity with Caesar; Piso, as having been attacked by him, when he was
on[231] his trial for extortion, on a charge of having illegally put
to death a Transpadane Gaul; Catulus, as having hated him ever since
he stood for the pontificate, because, at an advanced age, and after
filling the highest offices, he had been defeated by Caesar, who was
then comparatively a youth.[232] The opportunity, too, seemed
favorable for such an accusation; for Caesar, by extraordinary
generosity in private, and by magnificent exhibitions in public,[233]
had fallen greatly into debt. But when they failed to persuade the
consul to such injustice, they themselves, by going from one person to