Note 2530 — Chapter XVI · COMITIAL LEGISLATION From the Gracchi to Sulla 134-82

Lengle (Sull. Verf. 10) argues, on the contrary, that the measure could be intended for the tribunes only, because, as he supposes, a patrician magistrate always consulted the senate concerning his legislative proposals. But Lengle has reckoned without the facts. An examination of the sources will show that from the time of the dictator Publilius Philo (Livy viii. 12. 14) to the time of the dictator Julius Caesar (Dio Cass. xxxviii. 3 f.; Plut. Caes. 14; App. B. C. ii. 10) patrician magistrates occasionally brought rogations before the comitia without the senatorial sanction. But it is possible that in speaking of “an ancient law long disused” (p. 406, n. 2) Appian may wrongly have had in mind the pre-Hortensian restriction on the plebiscite; p. 277, n. 4.