Had he so chosen he might again have been a "real power in the State;" but to become so in the way proposed to him it was necessary that he should join others in a conspiracy against the Republic.
I do not wish it to be supposed that Cicero received the overtures made to him with horror.

Conspiracies were too common for horror; and these conspirators were all our Cicero's friends in one sense, though in another they might be his opponents.

We may imagine that at first Crassus had nothing to do with the matter, and that Pompey would fain have stood aloof in his jealousy.

But Caesar knew that it was well to have Cicero, if Cicero was to be had.

It was not only his eloquence which was marvellously powerful, or his energy which had been shown to be indomitable: there was his character, surpassed by that of no Roman living; if only, in giving them the use of his character, he could be got to disregard the honor and the justice and the patriotism on which his character had been founded.