[63] Ad Fam., lib. vii., 2: "In primisque me delectavit tantum studium bonorum in me exstitisse contra incredibilem contentionem clarissimi et potentissimi viri." [64] Caesar, a Sketch, p. 336. [65] Ibid., p. 341. [66] He reached Laodicea, an inland town, on July 31st, B.C. 51, and embarked, as far as we can tell, at Sida on August 3d, B.C. 50. It may be doubted whether any Roman governor got to the end of his year's government with greater despatch. [67] No exemption was made for Caesar in Pompey's law as it originally stood; and after the law had been inscribed as usual on a bronze tablet it was altered at Pompey's order, so as to give Caesar the privilege. Pompey pleaded forgetfulness, but the change was probably forced upon him by Caesar's influence.--Suetonius, J. Caesar, xxviii. [68] Ad Div., lib. iii., 2. [69] Ad Att., lib. v., 1. [70] Abeken points out to us, in dealing with the year in which Cicero's government came to an end, B.C. 50, that Cato's letters to Cicero (Ad Fam., lib. xv., 5) bear irrefutable testimony as to the real greatness of Cicero. See the translation edited by Merivale, p. 235. This applies to his conduct in Cilicia, and may thus be taken as evidence outside his own, though addressed to himself. [71] The Roman Triumvirate, p. 107. [72] Caesar, a Sketch, pp. 170, 341. [73] Professor Mommsen says no word of Cicero's government in Cilicia. [74] I cannot but refer to Mommsen's account of this transaction, book v., chap. viii.: "Golden fetters were also laid upon him," Cicero. "Amid the serious embarrassments of his finances the loans of Caesar free of interest * * * were in a high degree welcome to him; and many an immortal oration for the Senate was nipped in the bud by the thought that the agent of Caesar might present a bill to him after the close of the sitting." There are many assertions here for which I have looked in vain for the authority. I do not know that Cicero's finances were seriously embarrassed at the time. The evidence goes rather to show that they were not so. Had he ever taken more than one loan from Caesar? I find nothing as to any question of interest; but I imagine that Caesar treated Cicero as Cicero afterward treated Pompey when he lent him money. We do not know whether even Crassus charged Caesar interest. We may presume that a loan is always made welcome, or the money would not be borrowed, but the "high degree of welcome," as applied to this especial loan, ought to have some special justification. As to Cicero's anxiety in borrowing the money I know nothing, but he was very anxious to pay it. The borrowing and the lending of money between Roman noblemen was very common. No one had ever borrowed so freely as Caesar had done. Cicero was a lender and a borrower, but I think that he was never seriously embarrassed. What oration was nipped in the bud by fear of