Diary and correspondence of Count Axel Fersen, grand-marshal of Sweden, relating to the court of France. Tr. by Katharine Prescott Wormeley. Illustrated with portraits from the original

ThatБЂ™s why our strategy has always been to build your reputation carefully, through your advocacy in the courts. We shall do ourselves irreparable damage with the men who really matter if the feeling gets around that you are merely another rabble-rouser. Also-I hesitate to raise this, Marcus-but have you considered TerentiaБЂ™s reaction if you were to follow this course?БЂ«Servius guffawed at that. БЂњYou will never conquer Rome, Cicero, if you cannot rule your wife.БЂ«БЂњConquering Rome would be childБЂ™s play, Servius, believe me, compared with ruling my wife.БЂ«And so the debate went on. Lucius favored an immediate approach to the tribunes, no matter what the consequences. Sthenius was too numb with misery and fear to have a coherent opinion on anything. At the very end, Cicero asked me what I thought. In other company, this might have caused surprise, a slaveБЂ™s view not counting for much in most RomansБЂ™ eyes, but these men were used to the way that Cicero sometimes turned to me for advice. I replied cautiously that it seemed to me that Hortensius would not be happy to learn of VerresБЂ™s action, and that the prospect of the case becoming a public scandal might yet force him to put more pressure on his client to see sense: going to the tribunes was a risk, but on balance it was one worth taking ...»