nothing but dishonour: and this you perceived though absent, as did others on the spot, by whose zeal and wealth I could easily have obtained all I wanted, had only my supporters allowed it.[398] In this respect I am now in serious difficulty. Other causes of anxiety are somewhat more of the _tacenda_ kind.[399] My brother and daughter treat me with affection. I am looking forward to seeing you. [Footnote 384: The speech _de Domo sua ad Pontifices_. The genuineness of the existing speech has been doubted. But it may very well be said that no one but Cicero could have written it. It is not certainly one of his happiest efforts, in spite of what he says here; but he is not unaccustomed to estimate his speeches somewhat highly, and to mistake violence for vigour.] [Footnote 385: He will send it to Atticus to get copied by his _librarii_, and published.] [Footnote 386: Appius Claudius Pulcher, brother of P. Clodius, was a prætor this year.] [Footnote 387: It is not clear that Clodius was wrong; the pontifices decided that for a valid consecration an order of the people was requisite, and, of course, Clodius could allege such an order. Cicero devoted the greater part of his speech, therefore, to shewing (1) that Clodius's adoption was invalid, and that he was therefore no tribune, and incapable of taking an order of the people; (2) that the law was a _privilegium_, and therefore invalid. The pontifices did not consider either of these points, which were not properly before them, or within their competence; they merely decided the religious question--that unless there had been a _iussus populi_ or _plebis scitus_ there was no valid consecration.] [Footnote 388: Or perhaps only "statue of Liberty," as the temple was not yet completed.] [Footnote 389: A portico or colonnade, built by Q. Catulus, the conqueror of the Cimbri, on the site of the house of M. Flaccus, who was killed with Saturninus in B.C. 100. It was close to Cicero's house, and what Clodius appears to have done was to pull down the portico, and build another, extending over part of Cicero's site, on which was to be a temple for his statue of Liberty.] [Footnote 390: Cn. Cornelius Lentulus Marcellinus was called on first as consul designate for B.C. 56.] [Footnote 391: Sext. Attilius Serranus, a tribune. He had been a quæstor in Cicero's consulship, but had opposed his recall.] [Footnote 392: Cn. Oppius Cornicinus, the father-in-law of Serranus, is said in _p. red. at Quir._ § 13 to have done the same in the senate on the 1st of January, when Serranus also went through the same form of "demanding a night" for consideration.]