[Footnote 364: _I.e._, securing indemnity to the proposers if there is a technical breach of existing laws, something like the common clause--"all statutes to the contrary notwithstanding."] [Footnote 365: The Clodian law.] [Footnote 366: Because they would not be protected as the previous tribunes were by the fact of the Clodian law (which alone was contravened) having emanated from their own _collegium_.] [Footnote 367: L. Quadratus Ninnius, tribune-elect. On the 1st of June next he brought forward the question of Cicero's restoration in the senate.] [Footnote 368: Cicero's cousin, C. Visellius Varro, a learned jurisconsult (_Brut._ § 264; 1 _Verr._ § 71).] [Footnote 369: The tribunes came into office on the 10th of December, nearly three weeks before the consuls, prætors, etc., who entered office on the 1st of January.] LXXXIII (F XIV, 3) TO TERENTIA (AT ROME) DYRRACHIUM, 29 NOVEMBER [Sidenote: B.C. 58, ÆT. 48] Greetings to his Terentia, Tulliola, and Cicero. I have received three letters from the hands of Aristocritus, which I almost obliterated with tears. For I am thoroughly weakened with sorrow, my dear Terentia, and it is not my own miseries that torture me more than yours--and yours, my children! Moreover, I am more miserable than you in this, that whereas the disaster is shared by us both, yet the fault is all my own. It was my duty to have avoided the danger by accepting a legation,[370] or to resist it by careful management and the resources at my command, or to fall like a brave man. Nothing was more pitiful, more base, or more unworthy of myself than the line I actually took. Accordingly, it is with shame as well as grief that I am overpowered. For I am ashamed of not having exhibited courage and care to a most excellent wife and most darling children. I have, day and night, before my eyes the mourning dresses, the tears of you all, and the weakness of your own health, while the hope of recall presented to me is slender indeed. Many are hostile, nearly all jealous. To expel me had been difficult, to keep me out is easy. However, as long as you entertain any hope, I will not give way, lest all should seem lost by my fault. As to your anxiety for my personal safety, that is now the easiest thing in the world for me, for even my enemies desire me to go on living in this utter wretchedness. I will, however, do as you bid me. I have thanked the friends you desired me to thank, and I have delivered the letters to Dexippus, and have mentioned that you had informed me of their kindness. That our Piso has shewn surprising zeal and kindness to us I can see for myself, but everybody also tells me of it. God grant that I may be allowed, along with you and our children, to enjoy the actual society of such a son-in-law! For the present our one remaining hope is in the new tribunes, and that, too, in the first days of their office; if the matter is allowed to get stale, it is all over with us. It is for that