to honor me, to regard me as one of his friends.  Of the many confidential communications which passed between us in those days, by word of mouth, by letter, by message, I say nothing, for sterner times followed.  At the breaking out of the Civil War, when you were on your way toward Brundisium to join Caesar, you came to me to my Formian villa.  In the first place, how much did that very fact mean, especially at those times!  Furthermore, do you think I have forgotten your counsel, your words, the kindness you showed?  I remember that Trebatius was there.  Nor indeed have I forgotten the letter which you sent to me after meeting Caesar, in the district near Trebula, as I remember it.  Next came that ill-fated moment when either my regard for public opinion, or my sense of duty, or chance, call it what you will, compelled me to go to Pompey.  What act of kindness or thoughtfulness either toward me in my absence or toward my dear ones in Rome did you neglect?  In fact, whom have all my friends thought more devoted to me and to themselves than you are?  I came to Brundisium.  Do you think I have forgotten in what haste, as soon as you heard of it, you came hurrying to me from Tarentum?  How much your presence meant to me, your words of cheer to a courage broken by the fear of universal disaster!  Finally, our life at Rome began.  What element did our friendship lack?  In most important matters I followed your advice with reference to my relations toward Caesar; in other matters I followed my own sense of duty.  With whom but myself, if Caesar be excepted, have you gone so far as to visit his house again and again, and to spend there many hours, oftentimes in the most delightful discourse?  It was then too, if you remember, that you persuaded me to write those philosophical essays of mine.  After his return, what purpose was more in your thoughts than to have me as good a friend of Caesar as possible?  This you accomplished at once.

“What is the point, then, of this discourse, which is longer than I had intended it should be?  This is the point, that I have been surprised that you, who ought to see these things, have believed that I have taken any step which is out of harmony with our friendly relations, for beside these facts which I have mentioned, which are undisputed and self-evident facts, there are many more intimate ties of friendship which I can scarcely put in words.  Everything about you charms me, but most of all, on the one hand, your perfect loyalty in matters of friendship, your wisdom, dignity, steadfastness; on the other hand, your wit, refinement, and literary tastes.

“Wherefore—­now I come back to the grievance—­in the first place, I did not think that you had voted for that law; in the second place, if I had thought so, I should never have thought that you had done it without some sufficient reason.  Your position makes whatever you do noticeable; furthermore, envy puts some of your acts in a worse light than the facts warrant.