XXXIV.  But though Caesar and his party had thus violently got possession of the power, and had one part of the citizens at their command through their grants, and another part through fear, they still dreaded Cato.  For even when they did get the advantage over him, the fact that it was with difficulty and labour, and not without shame and exposure that they hardly forced their purpose, was annoying and vexatious.  Clodius, indeed, did not expect to be able to put down Cicero so long as Cato was at home, and as he was contriving how to effect this, he sent for Cato as soon as he was in his office, and addressed him to the effect that he considered Cato to be the purest man of all the Romans, and he was ready to prove the sincerity of his opinion by his acts, and he said that though many persons were soliciting the commission to Cyprus and Ptolemaeus,[706] and asking to be sent, he thought Cato alone worthy of it, and that he gladly offered him the favour.  On Cato crying out that the thing was a snare and insult and not a favour, Clodius replied in an insolent and contemptuous manner, “Well, if you don’t like it, you shall make the voyage against your liking;” and immediately going before the people he got the mission of Cato confirmed by a law.  When Cato was leaving Rome, Clodius allowed him neither ship nor soldier nor attendant except two clerks, one of whom was a thief and a thorough knave, and the other was a client of Clodius.  And as if he had given him but small occupations with the affairs of Cyprus and Ptolemaeus, Clodius commissioned him also to restore the Byzantine fugitives, his wish being that Cato should be as long as possible from Rome during his tribuneship.

XXXV.  Being under such compulsion, Cato advised Cicero, who was pressed by his enemies, not to raise any commotion nor to involve the city in a contest and bloodshed, but by yielding to the times to be again the saviour of his country; and sending forward to Cyprus Canidius,[707] one of his friends, he prevailed on Ptolemaeus[708] to yield without a struggle, assuring him that he should want neither money nor respect, for that the people would give him the priesthood of the goddess at Paphos.[709] Cato himself stayed in Rhodes making preparation and waiting for the answers.  In the meantime Ptolemaeus,[710] King of Egypt, left Alexandria in anger after quarrelling with the citizens, and set sail for Rome in the hope that Caesar and Pompeius would restore him with a military force; and as he wished to see Cato he sent a message, expecting that Cato would come to him.  Cato happened to be then undergoing a purging,[711] and he answered that Ptolemaeus must come, if he wished to see him; and when the king did come, Cato neither advanced to meet him nor rose, but saluted him as one of his ordinary visitors and bade him be seated; and by this behaviour the king was at first disturbed, and was amazed at the contrast between Cato’s haughty behaviour and rough manners, and the meanness and