and the earnestness displayed by Pompey's intimates, have produced an impression that Pompey desires it; and those who don't want him to have it are at the same time annoyed with your having put power into his hands.[442] I have the less influence in the case because I am under an obligation to you. Moreover, whatever influence I might have had is extinguished by the idea people entertain as to Pompey's wishes, for they think they are gratifying him. We are in much the same position as we were long before your departure: now, as then, the sore has been fomented secretly by the king himself and by the friends and intimates of Pompey, and then openly irritated by the consulars, till the popular prejudice has been excited to the highest pitch. All the world shall recognize my loyalty, and your friends on the spot shall see my affection for you though you are absent. If there were any good faith in those most bound to shew it, we should be in no difficulty at all. [Footnote 435: Consul of B.C. 57, who had gone at the end of his consulship to be governor of Cilicia.] [Footnote 436: When Ptolemy Auletes first appealed to the senate (B.C. 57) to restore him to the throne of Egypt, it appears that a resolution was passed authorizing the proconsul of Cilicia to do so; but as Pompey wished to have the business, the senate found itself in a difficulty, not wishing to put him in military command, or daring to offend him by an open refusal (Dio, xxxix. 12). The tribune C. Cato found up a Sibylline oracle forbidding the employment of an army for the purpose, which served the senate as a decent excuse. The commission to Lentulus was eventually withdrawn by an _auctoritas senatus_, and Lentulus did not venture to do it. Ptolemy, finding that he could not succeed in getting Pompey commissioned, retired to Ephesus, and afterwards succeeded by an enormous bribe in inducing Gabinius, the proconsul of Syria, to do it (B.C. 55).] [Footnote 437: Of having been induced by greed or ambition to undertake the restoration of Ptolemy.] [Footnote 438: Reading _tibicini_ for the unmeaning _tibi_. It is not certain, but it makes good sense. Ptolemy was called _Auletes_ (flute-player), of which the Latin _tibicen_ is a translation, meant, no doubt, somewhat jocosely.] [Footnote 439: _I.e._, before going to the senate on the Ides of January (13th). See next letter.] [Footnote 440: The Sibylline oracle forbade restoring the king "with a multitude."] [Footnote 441: Pompey had at this time _imperium_ as _curator annonæ_.] [Footnote 442: Because it was on Lentulus's motion that Pompey had been made _curator annonæ_, and so in possession of _imperium_ with naval and military forces.] XCV (F I, 2) TO P. LENTULUS SPINTHER (IN CILICIA) ROME, 15 JANUARY [Sidenote: B.C. 56, ÆT. 50]