As to your advice to me to act "diplomatically" and keep to the "outside course"--I will obey you. But I want still more worldly wisdom, for which, as usual, I shall come to you. Pry small things out from Fabius,[518] if you can get at him, and pick the brains of your guest, and write me word on these points and all others every day. When there is nothing for you to write, write and say so. Take care of your health. [Footnote 513: The letter appears to be from Tusculum, because Cicero asks for a letter every day, which he could hardly expect if he were farther off. This year Cicero was much away from Rome, and yet his correspondence is meagre compared with other years. So far as this is not due to accident in the preservation of his letters, it may be accounted for by the fact that he was working at his _de Oratore_--so hard, that even his brother Quintus had scruples in breaking in upon him.] [Footnote 514: This may refer to the laws of Trebonius, giving Pompey and Crassus Spain and Syria respectively, and Cæsar an additional five years in Gaul, or to some of Pompey's own legislation.] [Footnote 515: L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, a candidate for the consulship of B.C. 55, but whose election had never come off. By various contrivances the _comitia_ were prevented, so that the new year opened with an _interregnum_; and Pompey and Crassus were elected under the presidency of an _interrex_ (Dio, xxxix. 31).] [Footnote 516: Pompey.] [Footnote 517: L. Natta, a brother-in-law of Clodius, a pontifex who had presided at the _consecratio_ of Cicero's house. He seems to have just died.] [Footnote 518: A friend of Pompey's. I think "your guest" must be Pompey himself, whom Atticus is about to entertain at dinner.] CXVIII (F I, 8) TO P. LENTULUS SPINTHER (IN CILICIA) ROME (JANUARY) [Sidenote: B.C. 55, ÆT. 51]