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308 honourable to me than if he had voted me all the triumphs in the world. . . . Then he was one of the witnesses who registered the decree, and he has written me a most gratifying letter about his own amendment." Later on, when Cato had supported the claims of Bibulus to a Thanksgiving, because his lieutenant had driven the Parthians from his province, Cicero's tone changed. "Cato," he says, "was disgustingly ill-natured to me; he bore testimony to my purity, justice, kindliness, and good faith, which I did not require, and refused that which I asked for."

On his journey homeward from his province Cicero was obliged to leave behind him at Patræ: his freedman Tiro, who was attacked by a dangerous illness. Cicero was always a kind and generous master to his dependents, and for Tiro in particular he had a sincere and tender affection. "I beseech you, my dear Tiro," he writes on this occasion, "spare no expense in all that relates to your health. I have written to Curius to let you have any sum you may mention. I think it will be well to make a present to the physician to render him the more attentive. The obligations which you have conferred on me are countless, in my home and in the Forum, at Rome and in my province; they extend alike to my public and my private concerns, to my studies and to my writings. But I shall esteem it the greatest of all if you let me see you again, as I trust I shall, in good health. I think that your best plan,