" [2]
His affairs were still in disorder. Caesar had now large sums at his
disposition. Cicero gave the highest proof of the sincerity of his
conversion by accepting money from him. "You say," he observed in another
letter, "that Caesar shows every day more marks of his affection for you.
It gives me infinite pleasure. I can have no second thoughts in Caesar's
affairs. I act on conviction, and am doing but my duty; but I am inflamed
with love for him." [3]
With Pompey and Crassus Cicero seemed equally familiar. When their
consulship was over, their provinces were assigned as had been determined.
Pompey had Spain, with six legions. He remained himself at Rome, sending
lieutenants in charge of them. Crassus aspired to equal the glory of his
colleagues in the open field. He had gained some successes in the war with
the slaves which persuaded him that he too could be a conqueror; and
knowing as much of foreign campaigning as the clerks in his factories, he
intended to use Syria as a base of operations against the Parthians, and
to extend the frontier to the Indus. The Senate had murmured, but Cicero
had passionately defended Crassus;[4] and as if to show publicly how
entirely he had now devoted himself to the cause of the "Dynasts," he
invited Crassus to dine with him the day before his departure for the
East.
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