Note 9 — Chapter VII · CICERO’S RESPONSE TO EXPERIENCE

Hardy (Jour. Phil. XXXIV, 16) denies that the question of the senate’s auctoritas was at stake in this trial, since Sallust’s Catiline and Caesar’s Bell. Civ. admit the constitutionality of the Sen. Cons. Ult. But Sallust and Caesar wrote almost twenty years later, after Caesar had packed the senate for use in any measure he chose. The question was then no longer of any importance. Cicero’s speech, Pro Rabirio, definitely says that the issue at stake was the senate’s authority.