Page:Cicero And The Fall Of The Roman Republic.djvu/381

49 B.C.] Sulpicius Rufus. Servius was the first lawyer in Rome, but in politics he showed himself wanting in insight and decision. He allowed his son to accompany Cæsar to Brundisium, to take part in peace negotiations, as he hoped, really to assist in attacking and blockading Pompey. He was next obliged himself to appear in Cæsar's Senate at Rome. His despair and disgust at the situation were overwhelming, and he expressed his sorrows freely in an interview just before Cicero's departure. "He shed so many tears, that I wondered that the fountain of them had not been dried up with his continued affliction." But his timidity prevented his accompanying his friend in his flight from Italy. He had committed himself too far, and he had to count, sorely against his will, as a Cæsarian.

All Cæsar's efforts were directed to inducing Cicero to acquiesce in the situation as Sulpicius had done. The presence of Cicero would have soothed the minds of many, and would have given weight and dignity to the remnant of the Senate which could still be assembled in Rome. Urgent letters, couched in the most flattering language from Cæsar himself and from his friends pressed Cicero to return, and the hope that he might thus aid the cause of peace was always dangled before him. On this point, however, Cicero was no longer to be deceived, and he stood firm in spite of the ordeal (which he would fain have avoided) of a personal interview with the "master of