Regum et imperatorum apophthegmata

When he went over to Pompey s side, changing his mind again, and was asked by Pompey where he had left Piso, his son-in-law, he said, With your father-in-law ! [*](Pompey married Caesar’s daughter Julia as his fourth wife.)

One man changed from Caesar’s side to Pompey’s, and said that as the result of haste and eagerness he had left his horse behind. Cicero said that the man showed greater consideration-for his horse !

To the man who reported that Caesar’s friends were downcast he retorted, You speak as if they were Caesar’s foes ! [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Cicero, chap. xxxviii. (880 B).)

After the battle of Pharsalus, when Pompey had fled, one Nonius declared that on their side were still seven eagles, and exhorted them, therefore, to have courage. Your advice would be good, said Cicero, if we were making war on jackdaws. [*](Ibid. 880 C.)

After Caesar had conquered, he set up again with honour Pompey s statues which had been thrown down. Cicero, in speaking of him, said that Caesar, by restoring Pompey’s statues, made his own secure. [*](Plutarch repeats this story in Moralia, 91 A; Life of Caesar, chap. lvii. (734 E); Life of Cicero, chap. xl. (881 D). Cf. Suetonius, Divus Iulius, 75.)

He set a very high value on excellent speaking, and strove especially for this, so much so that once, when he had a case to plead before the court of the centum viri, and the day was almost come, and his