All kept aloof: Pompey went into the country, and would not see Cicero or his friends; Cæsar was in Gaul; Crassus had a bitter spite against Cicero for having been mentioned in Catiline’s conspiracy,—as was generally believed, with justice, but yet without Cicero’s having anything to do with it, as this was said by one of the witnesses. With the son of Crassus, however, P. Crassus, who was a very distinguished man, Cicero was very intimate; and he loved him notwithstanding all his father’s enmity. Cicero could not abide the day of his trial, or he would have been lost: the _concilia_ were now in truth little better than the rakings together of the dregs of the Roman market and streets, and such meetings allowed themselves to be guided by a leader in any way he liked. Cicero had therefore to leave the city to save his life. The senate, bad as that body was, mutually encouraged each other, showing great sympathy for Cicero. Clodius, however, followed up his victory, as he saw that the government was quite cowed. He pulled down Cicero’s houses; he destroyed his villa; he put up his property for sale, though not a soul would buy it; and on the ground where his house had stood, he built a small temple to Freedom. The place on the Palatine where it stood, I made out within about fifty paces, and I was there often: in the reign of the emperor Claudius, the house was rebuilt; but it was burnt down again in Nero’s fire. Not only was Cicero himself outlawed, but likewise all those who should give him shelter or abet him. Thus he was not able to go at all to Sicily, the prætor there, with whom in former times he had been on friendly terms, having allowed himself to be intimidated: he therefore went to Macedon, where he lived with the quæstor Plancius, who behaved to him like a brother. Clodius now kept his word to the consuls. Gabinius and Piso got the provinces which he had promised them, whilst he himself with the greatest shamelessness laid hands on whatever he listed. This went on as long as his year of office lasted. In the following year, public opinion declared so loudly for Cicero, petitions pouring in from all sides, that he was regularly recalled, and received with a triumphant welcome which consoled him for the moment;—nay, he deemed himself happier than ever. Yet for all that, his misfortune had made a deep impression upon him: the speeches which he made just before the year of that calamity, especially that for Flaccus his assistant in the affair of Catiline, are clouded with anxiety, and with bitter grief at the reward which he received from his country, a sorrow which even endangered his life; and this imparts to them a peculiar interest. The very next year, that happiness was already at an end. The internal condition of Rome became worse and worse. Pompey fell out with Clodius, and showed himself friendly to Cicero. Pompey and Crassus now wanted to be consuls, against the wishes of all _viri boni_;