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Epistulae ad Familiares, VI. xiv.-xvi.

not only by Caesar's speech, mild and generous as it certainly was, but also by his eyes and expression, and by many other signs as well, which I could more easily discern than describe, was just this—I felt that your restoration was a certainty.

³ You must therefore be of good cheer and full of courage, and since you have faced the most tempestuous times with the serenity of a philosopher, you must now welcome this calmer weather with a glad heart.

In any event I shall attend to your affairs as carefully as their extreme difficulty requires, and I shall have the greatest pleasure in making supplication on your behalf, as I have never yet ceased to do, not to Caesar only, but to all his friends, whom I have found to be very friendly disposed to myself.

XV

Cicero to Basilus^[1]

Rome, March 15 (?), 44 B.C.

I greet you. I am delighted on your account, and rejoice on my own; I love you, and have your interests at heart; I want you to love me too, and should like to know how you are, and what is going on.

XVI

Bithynicus^[2] to Cicero

Sicily, probably March, 44 B.C.

I greet you. Had I not personally many valid reasons for my friendship with you, I should go back for the beginnings of that friendship to the days of

↑ L. Minucius Basilus held high office under Caesar, whom he afterwards helped assassinate. It is conjectured that Cicero wrote this note on the Ides of March in reply to a report of the assassination received from Basilus.
↑ Aulus Pompeius Bithynicus, though himself a relative of Pompey's, fought during the civil war on Caesar's side. It seems that he was at this time propraetor in Sicily. He was afterwards put to death by Sextus Pompeius on a charge of plotting against him.

501

[1] L. Minucius Basilus held high office under Caesar, whom he afterwards helped assassinate. It is conjectured that Cicero wrote this note on the Ides of March in reply to a report of the assassination received from Basilus.

[2] Aulus Pompeius Bithynicus, though himself a relative of Pompey's, fought during the civil war on Caesar's side. It seems that he was at this time propraetor in Sicily. He was afterwards put to death by Sextus Pompeius on a charge of plotting against him.

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