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224 he was to be slipped on his prey, unless Cicero gave sufficient guarantees that he had abandoned his opposition to the triumvirs. That Cicero should now have a voice in the counsels of the confederates, was of course out of the question; but he might still, if he pleased, receive protection from them as the price of his silence. So far as outward position went, Cæsar's offers were meant to be honourable and complimentary to Cicero; and in after times Caesar unhesitatingly appealed to them as evidence of his good-will. Ten years later Cicero writes : "When he is justifying his conduct, he always throws on me the blame for the occurrences of that time; I was so bitter against him, he says, that I would not accept even honours from his hand." But these honours would effectually have closed Cicero's mouth. He was offered either a vacant place on the board of commissioners for executing Cæsar's Agrarian Law, or else the post of Cæsar's lieutenant in Gaul. Finally he was allowed the option of simple retirement by the acceptance of an honorary commission, which would have removed him for a year from Italy.

All these offers Cicero declined. He claimed complete freedom of action, and thought himself strong enough to face the attack of Clodius unaided. "I am now bearing myself," he writes in the autumn, "so that every day increases my forces and the goodwill with which I am supported. I let politics alone, and work with all my might in my old field of labour, the law-courts. I find that this is favourably