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386 until it was overborne by armed force. "In the country-towns," writes Cicero just a month after the assassination, "people rejoice to their heart's content. I cannot describe how delighted they are, how they throng around me, and beg me to tell them the story, how the deed was done." "Nothing," he writes, some months later, "can be firmer or better than the temper shown by the people and by the whole of Italy." We find the corporations of the country-towns offering men and money and passing decrees of ignominy and deprivation against anyone who should refuse to enlist. Even the newly enfranchised Transpadanes received Decimus Brutus heartily, and enrolled themselves under his standard. The first taste of despotism had been bitter to the Roman people, and we hear no more of that apathy which had been so conspicuous in the struggle between Cæsar and Pompey (see p. 327). "This much I must write," says Cicero to Decimus Brutus in the following January, "that the Senate and people of Rome take the deepest interest not only in your safety but in your glory. I am much struck to see how precious your name is held, and how notable is the affection which all the citizens have for you. All hope and trust that as once you rid the State of the despot, so now you will rid her of the despotism. At Rome and throughout all Italy we are raising a conscription, if it be right to