[Footnote 429: The senators not in office only spoke when called on (_rogati_). The consuls-designate (if there were any) were always called first, and then the consulars in order. To be called _first_ was a subject of ambition, and an opportunity for the presiding magistrate to pay a compliment or the reverse.] [Footnote 430: They went and sat or stood near the speaker they wished to support. It was not, however, a formal division till the speeches ended, and the presiding magistrate counted. Still, it made the division easier.] [Footnote 431: A platform outside the senate-house, where representatives originally of Greek and then of other states were placed. It was apparently possible to hear, or partly hear, the debates from it. It was a _locus substructus_ (Varro, _L. L._ v. 155). There is no evidence that it was a building to lodge ambassadors in, as Prof. Tyrrell says.] XCIII (F VII, 26) TO M. FADIUS GALLUS (AT ROME) TUSCULUM[432] (? DECEMBER) [Sidenote: B.C. 57, ÆT. 49] Having been suffering for nine days past from a severe disorder of the bowels, and being unable to convince those who desired my services that I was ill because I had no fever, I fled to my Tusculan villa, after having, in fact, observed for two days so strict a fast as not even to drink a drop of water. Accordingly, being thoroughly reduced by weakness and hunger, I was more in want of your services than I thought mine could be required by you. For myself, while shrinking from all illnesses, I especially shrink from that in regard to which the Stoics attack your friend Epicurus for saying that "he suffered from strangury and pains in the bowels"--the latter of which complaints they attribute to gluttony, the former to a still graver indulgence. I had been really much afraid of dysentery. But either the change of residence, or the mere relaxation of anxiety, or perhaps the natural abatement of the complaint from lapse of time, seems to me to have done me good. However, to prevent your wondering how this came about, or in what manner I let myself in for it, I must tell you that the sumptuary law, supposed to have introduced plain living, was the origin of my misfortune. For whilst your epicures wish to bring into fashion the products of the earth, which are not forbidden by the law, they flavour mushrooms, _petits choux_, and every kind of pot-herb so as to make them the most tempting dishes possible.[433] Having fallen a victim to these in the augural banquet at the house of Lentulus, I was seized with a violent diarrhœa, which, I think, has been checked to-day for the first time. And so I, who abstain from oysters and lampreys without any difficulty, have been beguiled by beet and mallows. Henceforth, therefore, I shall be more cautious. Yet, having heard of it from Anicius[434]--for he saw me turning sick--you had every reason not only for sending to inquire, but even for coming to see me. I am thinking of remaining here till I am