Note 219 — XXXV (A II, 9)

The lex Ælia (about B.C. 150) was a law regulating the powers of magistrates to dissolve comitia on religious grounds, such as bad omens, servata de cœlo, etc. Cicero (who could have had very little belief in the augural science) regards them as safeguards of the state, because as the Optimates generally secured the places in the augural college, it gave them a hold on elections and legislation. Bibulus tried in vain to use these powers to thwart Cæsar this year. The lex Cæcilia Didia (.B.C. 98) enforced the trinundinatio, or three weeks' notice of elections and laws, and forbade the proposal of a lex satura, i.e., a law containing a number of miscellaneous enactments. Perhaps its violation refers to the acta of Pompey in the East, which he wanted to have confirmed en bloc. The senate had made difficulties: but one of the fruits of the triumvirate was a measure for doing it. The lex Iunia et Licinia (B.C. 62) confirmed the Cæcilia Didia, and secured that the people knew what the proposed laws were.