Page:Cicero And The Fall Of The Roman Republic.djvu/311

56 B.C.] as far as the extremest verge of ocean there is nothing left for Italy to fear."

Cicero forthwith published this splendid oration. As a master-piece of his art, he might well be proud of it; but as marking definitely his submission to the Triumvirate, the "recantation," as he called it, caused him shame and self-reproach. "What is this you say," he writes to Atticus, "do you think that there is any one by whom I wish my works to be read and approved rather than by yourself? Why then did I send it to any one else first? Well, I was pressed by the person to whom I sent it, and I had not another copy; and besides—I keep nibbling round what I have got to swallow—this recantation seemed to me to be somewhat discreditable. But a long good night to the thorough downright honest policy. It is incredible what treachery I find in these noble chiefs, as they wish to be, and as they might be if they had any loyalty. I felt and knew how I had been led on by them and then deserted and tossed aside; still my hope was that I might work together with them in politics. But no, they were the same as ever, and by the aid of your monitions I have at last come to my senses. . . Let us finish with them. Since those, who have no power, will none of my love, let me take care that those who have the power shall love me. You will