When you and my other friends wrote to me previously that with your agreement the grants for the consular provinces had been provided,1 although I feared how it might turn out, still, I had hoped that you had a more sensible view than me of some part of the situation. Then, I was told in conversation and in writing that your decision was criticised harshly. I was very agitated; it seemed like the little hope I had left had been stolen from me.
For if the Tribunes of the Plebs are angry at us, what hope can there be? And it seems like they are right to be angry, since those who had taken up my cause were not included in your plans, and since through our concession, they lost all the power of their right to veto.2 Especially when they say that for my sake, they wanted their power over the consular grants, not to hold the consuls up, but to bind them to my cause; now, even if the consuls are friendly to my cause, they can do nothing without the will of the Tribunes.3
You write that if you had not agreed to it, those men would have passed it through the People—but this is impossible to do against the will of the Tribunes. Thus I fear we have lost the support of the Tribunes, and if we do still have it, then the chain binding the consuls has been lost.
Besides this, another not small inconvenience is that the reliable expectation (as indeed I have heard) that the Senate would pass no decrees until it had dealt with my case has come to nothing—and in a way that is not just unnecessary, but unprecedented and new. I don’t think consul-designates have ever been given provincial grants before. Now that the resolution and commitment to my cause has been weakened in this way, it is no longer possible to hold to no decrees being passed.
As to those friends who agreed to it when asked in the Senate—that is no surprise. It would be difficult to find anyone who would openly speak against the interests of both consuls. And no doubt it was difficult not to give in to a man as friendly as Lentulus, or Metellus,4 who generously put aside his rivalry. But I fear that we could still have a hold on these men, and that we have lost the Tribunes of the Plebs.
Please write and let me know how this situation came about and the present state of things, and do so the way you have lately. Even if your truthfulness brings me no joy, still, I am grateful for it.
Sent December 10th.
Latin text of Cic. Att. 3.24 | Glossary | Where is Cicero?
Footnote borrowed from Shackleton Bailey: ‘The consular provinces, Cilicia and Hither Spain in the present case, were assigned by the Senate under the lex Sempronia in advance of the election, but the decree for their military and civil provision (ornatio: cf. Mommsen, St. III, pp. 1097 ff.) was usually passed after the Consuls had entered upon office, and could be held up by the tribunician veto. Why special treatment, unprecedented as C. believed, shoudl have been accorded to the Consuls of 57 we do not know.’
Another footnote borrowed from Shackleton Bailey: ‘Since the ornatio had been put through before their entry into office on 10 December the new Tribunes had not been able, as they normally would have been, to influence the proceedings by exercising or threatening their veto.’
Cicero’s point is that it is more important to have the new Tribunes on his side than the new Consuls, as the Tribunes have the power to veto the Consuls. But in his attempt to gain the favour of the new Consuls, Atticus has angered the new Tribunes, who were already on Cicero’s side.
The consul-designates, who would take office in the new year.
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.