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51 B.C.] ; but it was well managed and successful. Quintus was acting as his brother's lieutenant, and he was, as we have seen, a skilful and experienced officer.

Cicero's troops gave him the greeting with which a victorious army used to salute its general. Roman commander-in-chief was always addressed by his own soldiers as "Imperator," but custom forbade him to use the title himself or to accept it from civilians, unless it had been first stamped on him by such a public and universal acclamation from the troops. From the moment of this greeting, Cicero was iustified in wreathing the fasces of his lictors with laurel, and in signing "Imperator" after his name in all formal letters.. The next step in the recognition of his success would be for the Senate to decree a Thanksgiving on account of it, and this again would naturally lead up to a triumph. The Thanksgiving was voted in spite of the opposition of Cato, who, however, proposed an alternative motion, giving thanks not to the gods but to Cicero for the wisdom and purity of his administration as governor. He likewise wrote to Cicero an elaborate explanation and apology for the line he had taken. Cæsar wrote with warm congratulations, and exulted over Cato's untimely scrupulosity, which he hoped would cause ill-will between him and Cicero. Cicero seems at first to have been quite satisfied with Cato. "His amendment," he writes to Atticus, "was more