Note 9 — Chapter I · CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH, B.C. 63-44

The law of B.C. 52 allowed Cæsar to be “elected in his absence” (absentis rationem haberi), but said nothing of his being in possession of a province. By long prescription the Senate had the right of deciding when a provincial governor should be “succeeded.” But then Cæsar’s term of provincial government had been fixed by a lex, which was superior to a Senatus-consultum; and he might also argue that if it was unconstitutional for a man to be elected consul while holding a province, the Senate had violated the constitution in allowing Pompey to be consul in B.C. 52.