Note 1318 — Chapter VI · THE SENATE

In a rough estimate of the house (61 B.C.) Cicero mentions 15 on one side of a question, “quite 400” on the other (ad Att. i. 14, 5). On Curio’s proposal in 50 B.C. that both Pompeius and Caesar should lay down their commands, 22 dissented, 370 approved (App. B.C. ii. 30). In the latter case there seems to have been no formal division (see p. 268 n. 2); and in both the small numbers may be the result of exact computation, the large either of a guess or of a deduction drawn from an already counted quorum.