arrangements for expelling from Rome the other statesman who shared with Cicero the honour of being feared by Cæsar as a leader of opposition. Cato was to be removed more gently than his comrade had been, but quite as effectually. Clodius had passed a law for the annexation of the kingdom of Cyprus, and the deposition of the Ptolemy who reigned there. This king was the brother of that Ptolemy Auletes who had purchased his recognition as King of Egypt from Cæsar (above p. 209) , and it was an act of cynical injustice thus to ruin the Cypriot ruler, whose title was just the same, as a punishment for not having bribed the triumvirs. Clodius had undertaken the business with all the more zest because the King of Cyprus had once refused to ransom him from the pirates. Clodius now passed a supplementary decree, commanding Cato by name to execute the deposition of Ptolemy. This order he did not venture to disobey. He wrote to Ptolemy promising to treat him with all consideration; but the unfortunate king put an end to his own life, and Cato was obliged to content himself with an ostentatious incorruptibility in administering his effects and paying the money realised into the Treasury. Meantime Cæsar's object was accomplished, and he wrote a letter[1] to Clodius, congratulating him that he had got Cato out of the way for the rest of his tribunate, and had likewise shut his mouth for the future about extraordinary commissions. Cato did not come back to Rome for more than two years.
We must now turn to accompany Cicero on his
- ↑ Pro Domo, 9, 22.
