[Footnote 393: Prof. Tyrrell brackets _porticum_. But I do not understand his difficulty, especially as he saw none in the last letter. Cicero (_de Domo_, § 102) certainly implies that Clodius had, at any rate, partly pulled down the _porticus Catuli_, in order to build something on a larger scale, which was to take in some of Cicero's site. This was now to come down, and so leave Cicero his _area_, and, I presume, the old _porticus Catuli_ was to be restored.] [Footnote 394: Cicero had given Crassus 3,500,000 for it (about £28,000). See Letter XVI.] [Footnote 395: _I.e._, my modest reserve. There does not seem any reason for Tyrrell's emendation of _num_ for _nam_.] [Footnote 396: I have translated Klotz's text. That given by Prof. Tyrrell is, to me at any rate, quite unintelligible. Cicero's _legatio_ under Pompey appears to have been, in fact, honorary, or _libera_, for he doesn't seem to have done anything. He wishes to reserve the right of resigning it to stand for the censorship (censors were elected in the following year), or of turning it into a _votiva legatio_, to visit certain sacred places on the plea of performing a vow, thus getting the opportunity, if he desired it, of retiring temporarily from Rome in a dignified manner. The force of _prope_ seems to be "almost any, I care not what." It was not likely that a man with his stormy past would do for the delicate duties of the censorship, and he would save appearances by going on a _votiva legatio_. See Letter XLIV.] [Footnote 397: _Facile careo_, others read _non facile_, "I don't like being without a suburban residence."] [Footnote 398: The thing which brought him "nothing but dishonour" was his quitting Rome, and the consequent expenses connected with winning over friends, or paying for Milo's bravoes to face those of Clodius. In the last part of the sentence he seems to mean that, had his supporters backed him properly, he would have got everything necessary to make good his losses from the liberality of the senate. Others explain that _defensores_ really means Pompey only.] [Footnote 399: This and the omission of his wife in the next clause, as the similar hint at the end of the last letter, seem to point to some misunderstanding with Terentia, with whom, however, a final rupture was postponed for nearly twelve years (B.C. 46.)] XCI (A IV, 3) TO ATTICUS (IN EPIRUS) ROME, 24 NOVEMBER [Sidenote: B.C. 57, ÆT. 49]