What other letters from Cicero we possess were written almost exclusively with the view of keeping the army together, and continuing the contest against Antony. There are among them a few introductory letters of little or no interest. And these military despatches, though of importance as showing the eager nature of the man, seem, as we read them, to be foreign to his nature. He does not understand war, and devotes himself to instigating¹ men to defend the Republic, of whom we suspect that they were not in the least affected² by the words they received from him. The correspondence as to this period of his life consists of his letters to the Generals, and of theirs to him. There are nearly as many of the one as of the other, and the reader is often inclined to doubt whether Cicero be writing to Plancus or Plancus to Cicero. He remained at Rome, and we can only imagine him as busy among the official workshops of the State, writing letters, scraping together money for the troops, struggling in vain to raise levies³, amid a crowd of hopeless, doubting, disheartened Senators, whom he still kept together by his eloquence⁴ as Republicans, though each was eager to escape.

But who can be made Consuls⁶ in the place of Pansa and Hirtius? Octavian, who had not left Italy after the battle of Mutina, was determined⁷ to be one; but the Senate, probably under the guidance of Cicero, for a time would not have him. There was a rumor⁸ that Cicero had been elected—or is said to have been such a rumor. Our authority for it comes from232 that correspondence with Marcus Brutus on the authenticity⁹ of which we do not trust, and the date of which we do not know.229 "When I had already written my letter, I heard that you had been made Consul

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