[Footnote 570: Lit. "has been beheaded with the axe of Tenes," mythical founder and legislator of Tenedos, whose laws were of Draconian severity. A _legatio_ from Tenedos, heard as usual in February, had asked that Tenedos might be made a _libera civitas_.] [Footnote 571: Some _publicanus_ who had made a charge on the Magnesians which they considered excessive.] [Footnote 572: Lucretius seems to have been now dead, according to Donatus 15 October (B.C. 55), though the date is uncertain. I have translated the reading _multæ tamen artis_, which has been changed by some to _multæ etiam artis_. But the contrast in the criticism seems to be between the fine poetical passages in the _de Rerum Natura_ and the mass of technical exposition of philosophy which must have repelled the "general reader" at all times. It suggests at once to Cicero to mention another poem on a similar subject, the _Empedoclea_ of Sallustius, of which and its writer we know nothing. It was not the historian.] CXXXII (Q FR II, 10) TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS (IN THE COUNTRY) ROME (FEBRUARY) [Sidenote: B.C. 54, ÆT. 52] I am glad you like my letter: however, I should not even now have had anything to write about, if I had not received yours. For on the 12th, when Appius had got together a thinly-attended meeting of the senate, the cold was so great that he was compelled by the general clamour[573] to dismiss us. As to the Commagenian, because I have blown that proposition to the winds, Appius makes wonderful advances to me both personally and through Pomponius; for he sees that if I adopt a similar style of discussion in the other business, February will not bring him anything in. And certainly I did chaff him pretty well, and not only wrenched from his grasp that petty township of his--situated in the territory of Zeugma on the Euphrates[574]--but also raised a loud laugh by my satire on the man's purple-edged toga, which he had been granted when Cæsar was consul.[575] "His wish," said I, "for a renewal of the same honour, to save the yearly re-dying of his purple-edged toga, I do not think calls for any decree of the house; but you, my lords, who could not endure that the Bostrian[576] should wear the _toga prætexta_, will you allow the Commagenian to do so?" You see the style of chaff, and the line I took. I spoke at length against the petty princeling, with the result that he was utterly laughed out of court. Alarmed by this exhibition, as I said, Appius is making up to me. For nothing could be easier than to explode the rest of his proposals. But I will not go so far as to trip him up, lest he appeal to the god of hospitality, and summon all his Greeks--it is they who make us friends again. I will do what Theopompus wants. I had forgotten to write to you about Cæsar: for I perceive what sort of letter you have been expecting. But the fact is, he has written word to Balbus that the little packet of letters, in