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278 was in urgent request for every important case, and he tells his brother that he was never before so pressed with business. "In your last letter," he adds, "as frequently before, you cheer me on to fresh exertions and fresh ambitions. I will do as you wish; but O when shall I find time to live?"

Of the cases in which Cicero was engaged at this time, one must have given him great satisfaction. His old friend Plancius, the same who had sheltered him in his exile, was elected ædile and then, almost as a matter of course, put on his trial for his proceedings during the election. Cicero delivered in his behalf an admirable speech (from which I have had occasion to quote freely ) and procured an acquittal.

Other briefs Cicero was obliged to undertake, not because he wished them, but because he could not refuse his powerful friends. The most notable cases were those of two objects of his former vituperations, Vatinius and Gabinius. Of the first he says that it was an easy business. Pompey had patched up a reconciliation between them, and Cæsar had earnestly pressed him to undertake the defence. Vatinius was an unscrupulous but amusing and good-humoured rascal, who disarmed hostility by making fun of his own physical deformities and moral obliquities. He was acquitted, and lived to show Cicero much kindness after the battle of Pharsalia, and to beg the