Ill] OF PEACOCKS 277 



get on these occasions, but still we wanted to know 

 what it meant, whereupon Pantuleius Parra^ came 

 to us with the news that while they were checking 

 the votes at the table some one had been caught 

 throwing voting tablets into a ballot-box,'' and 

 had been haled before the Consul by the supporters 

 of the rival candidates. Pavo got up, for it was said 

 that the man caught was the person who had been 

 put in charge of his candidate's ballot-box. 



CHAPTER VI 



OF PEACOCKS 



I Axius remarked on this: Now that Fircellius has 

 gone you may speak freely about peacocks, for had 



' Parra. A bird of evil omen. Cf. Horace (Odes, iii,27, i): 



Impios parrae recinentis omen 

 Ducat et praegnans cants . . . 



and the Eugubine Tables (beginning). 



* In loculum. For the more common cistam. It is inter- 

 esting to find that in this year, 54 B.C., a determined effort 

 was made by Cato to check bribery at elections, and Plutarch 

 (Life of Cato, about the middle) tells us that he greatly em- 

 barrassed the candidates, so much so that " they decided to 

 deposit 500 sestertia (cf Cicero, Ad Att., iv, 15, which fixes the 

 date) each, and then to canvass in a fair and legal manner. 

 If any one were convicted of bribery he was to forfeit his 

 deposit." A few paragraphs further on he writes: "This 

 Favonius stood for the ofiice of Aedile and apparently lost it ; 

 but Cato upon examining the votes, and finding several of 



