Candidacy in absence · 缺席参选
reported-in-source
Caesar says a tribunician proposal had allowed him to seek office while absent, and makes its later restriction part of his complaint.
Evidence limit: Permission, expiration of command and immunity from prosecution must be investigated separately; this passage alone does not resolve the legal controversy.
bc 1.32
Julius Caesar. The Civil Wars. Peskett, Arthur George, translator. London, UK: William Heinemann; New York, NY, 1914.
urn:cts:latinLit:phi0448.phi002.perseus-eng2:1.32
Having carried out these measures, Caesar withdraws his men into the nearest towns that for the rest of the time they might have some intermission of toil. He himself proceeds to the city. Having called the senate together, he recounts the wrongs done him by his personal enemies. He explains that he had sought no extraordinary office, but, waiting for the legitimate time of his consulship, had been content with privileges open to all the citizens. A proposal had been carried by the ten tribunes while Pompeius himself was consul that he should be allowed to compete in absence, though his enemies spoke against it, while Cato opposed with the utmost vehemence and after his old habit spun out the days by obstructive speech. If Pompeius disapproved, why did he allow it to be carried? If he approved, why did he prohibit him from taking advantage of the people’s kindness? He sets forth his own patience when under no pressure he had made the request about the disbandment of the armies, a point in which he was ready to make a personal sacrifice of dignity and position. He tells them of the bitterness of his foes who refused in his case what they demanded in the other, and preferred utter confusion to the surrender of military power and armed force. He tells of their injustice in robbing him of his legions, of their cruelty and insolence in infringing the rights of the tribunes; he enumerates the terms that he had offered, the conferences asked for and refused. On these considerations he exhorts and charges them to take up the burden of state and administer it with his help; but if they shrink through fear he will not burden them, and will administer the state himself. Envoys should be sent to Pompeius to effect a settlement, nor was he afraid of the remark made by Pompeius a little before in the senate, to the effect that undue influence is attributed to those to whom envoys are sent and fear argued on the part of those that send them. Such considerations seemed to belong to a poor and weak spirit. His own wish was to be superior to others in justice and equity as he had striven to surpass them in action.
Context before
urn:cts:latinLit:phi0448.phi002.perseus-eng2:1.31
Valerius and Cotta, finding Sardinia and Sicily bereft of military control, proceed thither with their armies. Tubero on reaching Africa finds Attius Varus in the province in military command; he, as we have explained above, after the loss of his cohorts at Auximum had immediately fled and gone to Africa and had on his own account seized on the vacant province. By raising a levy he had made up two legions, having by his knowledge of the people and the district and his familiarity with the province gained an opening for engaging in such undertakings, as he had held the province a few years previously after his praetorship. He prevents Tubero on arrival at Utica with his ships from approaching the port and the town, and does not allow him to land his son who was stricken with illness, but compels him to weigh anchor and quit the district.
Context after
urn:cts:latinLit:phi0448.phi002.perseus-eng2:1.33
The senate approves his proposal about the sending of envoys, but no one was found to be sent, each refusing for himself the duty of this embassy mainly through fear. For Pompeius when quitting the city had said in the senate that he would regard in the same light those who remained at Rome and those who were in Caesar’s camp. Thus three days are spun out with discussion and excuses. Also L. Metellus, the tribune, is put up by Caesar’s enemies to thwart this proposal and to hinder everything else that he proposed to do. When his design was understood, several days having been already wasted, Caesar, in order to avoid throwing away any more time, having failed to do what he had proposed, leaves the city and goes into further Gaul.