[Footnote 3:  The verse which Cicero quotes from Lucilius is fairly equivalent to this.]

[Footnote 4:  Probably by way of salute; or possibly as a precaution.]

In the following, he is anticipating a visit from his friend, and from the lady to whom he is betrothed.

“I had a delightful visit from Cincius on the 30th of January, before daylight.  For he told me that you were in Italy, and that he was going to send off some messengers to you, and would not let them go without a letter from me.  Not that I have much to write about (especially when you are all but here), except to assure you that I am anticipating your arrival with the greatest delight.  Therefore fly to me, to show your own affection, and to see what affection I bear you.  Other matters when we meet.  I have written this in a hurry.  As soon as ever you arrive, bring all your people to my house.  You will gratify me very much by coming.  You will see how wonderfully well Tyrrannio has arranged my books, the remains of which are much better than I had thought.  And I should be very glad if you could send me a couple of your library clerks whom Tyrrannio could make use of as binders, and to help him in other ways; and tell them to bring some parchment to make indices—­syllabuses, I believe you Greeks call them.  But this only if quite convenient to you.  But, at any rate, be sure you come yourself, if you can make any stay in our parts, and bring Pilia with you, for that is but fair, and Tullia wishes it much.  Upon my word you have bought a very fine place.  I hear that your gladiators fight capitally.  If you had cared to hire them out, you might have cleared your expenses at these two last public shows.  But we can talk about this hereafter.  Be sure to come; and do your best about the clerks, if you love me”.

The Roman gentleman of elegant and accomplished tastes, keeping a troop of private gladiators, and thinking of hiring them out, to our notions, is a curious combination of character; but the taste was not essentially more brutal than the prize-ring and the cock-fights of the last century.

II.  PAETUS.

Another of Cicero’s favourite correspondents was Papirius Paetus, who seems to have lived at home at ease, and taken little part in the political tumults of his day.  Like Atticus, he was an Epicurean, and thought more of the pleasures of life than of its cares and duties.  Yet Cicero evidently took great pleasure in his society, and his letters to him are written in the same familiar and genial tone as those to his old school-fellow.  Some of them throw a pleasant light upon the social habits of the day.  Cicero had had some friends staying with him at his country-seat at Tusculum, to whom, he says, he had been giving lessons in oratory.  Dolabella, his son-in-law, and Hirtius, the future consul, were among them.  “They are my scholars in declamation, and I am theirs in dinner-eating; for I conclude you