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because Caesar liked him. Tillius Cimber^[1] also has given me complete satisfaction. For it is not self-seeking petitions that carry weight with Caesar, so much as those based on the petitioner's duty to a friend; and as the latter was the case with Cimber, he had more influence than he could possibly have had on behalf of anyone else.

³ Your passport has not been given you at once, because of the astounding rascality of certain persons who would have bitterly resented any pardon being extended to you, whom they call "the trumpet of civil war," and perpetually talk as though they were not delighted that that war had occurred. And this is why we thought that we should act with some degree of secrecy, and that it should by no means be published abroad that your affairs had already been settled. But it will be so very shortly, and I have no doubt that, when you read this letter, the whole business will have been completed. Pansa indeed, a man of weight and to be trusted, not only asseverated, but pledged himself that he would procure the passport without a moment's delay. Anyhow I thought it best that you should have a full account of what has happened; for your wife Eppuleia's oral report and Ampia's tears plainly showed me that you are not quite so unperturbed as your letter would lead me to believe. Moreover, it was their opinion that when they themselves were no longer with you, you would be in a far more anxious state of mind. And so I deemed it highly essential for the alleviation of your distress and sorrow that the real facts of the case should be fully reported to you as real facts.

⁴ You know that I have hitherto been in the habit