Note 1151 — Chapter V · CONSULSHIP OF CÆSAR AND BIBULUS. (695.)

Cicero, Oration against Piso, 25; Familiar Letters, II. 17; Letters to Atticus, VI. 7.—“I will add, that if the ancient right and antique usage were still in force, I should not have had to send in my accounts till after I had discoursed about them, and had them audited with good humour, and the formalities that our intimacy justifies. What I would have done in Rome according to the old fashion, I ought, according to the Julian law, to have done in my province: send in my accounts on the spot, and only deposit in the treasury an exact copy of them. I was obliged to follow the provisions of the law. The accounts, duly audited and compared, were to be deposited in two towns, and I chose, in the terms of the law, the two most important—Laodicea and Apamea.... I come to the point of the customary presents. You must know that I had only included in my list the military tribunes, the prefects, and the officers of my house (contubernales). I even made a blunder. I thought I was allowed any latitude in point of time. Subsequently I learnt that the request ought to be sent in during the thirty days allowed for the settling the accounts. Happily, all is safe as far as the centurions are concerned, and the officers of the household of the military tribunes—for the law is silent in regard to the latter. (Cicero, Familiar Letters, V. 20.)