Page:Cicero And The Fall Of The Roman Republic.djvu/404

356 Cicero became a main channel of Cæsar's grace towards his old comrades, and in the delight of serving them committed himself more and more to acquiescence in the new government, and to hopes based on the personal character and conduct of its chief—"nothing can be better than the ruler himself; for the rest, men and things are such that, if needs be, it is better to hear of them than to see them."

Cicero is the main hope and stay of the exiled Pompeians. He is ever writing them letters of solace and encouragement, and working assiduously for their restoration. "You," writes Aulus Cæcina to Cicero, "must bear the whole burden; all my hopes are staked on you. Only persuade yourself that your part is not to do whatever you are asked in this business (though that were favour enough), but that the whole is your own work; then you will succeed. I fear that my misery makes me foolish, or my friendship shameless in heaping burdens on you: your own conduct must serve as my excuse; all your life long you have so accustomed us to see you labouring for your friends, that now we who may claim that title do not so much beg as requisition your services." To another exile, Ampius Balbus, Cicero writes: "I spoke in your cause with more bluntness than my present situation justifies; but the very ill-luck proper to my shipwrecked fortunes was overborne by your dearness to