4 Frederick Warren Sanford 



then augur. Drumann^^ and Lange^^ were wrong, in the opinion 

 of Nissen^^ and Sternkopf/^ in rejecting Plutarch's evidence, their 

 error being due to their erroneous understanding of B.G., VIII, 

 50, I. The annual elections occurred in August,^^ since Cicero 

 received news of them at Ephesus September 29. ^^ Illegal 

 methods employed to defeat Servius Galbk, Caesar's candidate 

 for the consulship, also point to an even numbered month, and so 

 August, in which the younger consul, Marcellus, who was un- 

 friendly to Caesar, would have the fasces.-'^ B.G., VIII, 50, 4, 

 also proves, according to Nissen's inference,^- that the civil elec- 

 tions were past when the augural contest came up. 



Fani. VIII, 12, was written in September, during the ludi cir- 

 censes or shortly after (c/. § 3) : Insolentissimi homines summis 

 Circensibus liidis meis postidandum me lege Scantinia curant. 

 Nissen and Sternkopf accept the common emendation of the cor- 

 rupt ms. reading in §4: Scis Domitio comitiorum diem timori 

 esse. Te exspecto etc. As these words set the augural election 

 in the future, it follows that Fam. VIII, 14, was written later than 

 Fam. VIII, 12.23 



Sternkopf-* finds further evidence to establish the relative dates 

 of Fam. VIII, 12, and VIII, 14. In the course of a quarrel be- 

 tween Appius and Caelius, the former, in conjunction with Domi- 

 tius, employed Servius Pola to institute criminal proceedings 

 against Caelius for an alleged offense covered by the lex Scantinia. 

 Caelius answered with the same charge against Appius, as we are 

 told in Fam. VIII, 12, 3 : Vix hoc erat Pola elocutus, cum ego 

 Appium censorem eadem lege postulavi. Quod melius caderet, 

 nihil zndi; nam sic est a populo et non infimo quoque adprobatum, 



" Gesch. Roms, I, p. 68. 



^^ Rom. Alt., Ill-, p. 399. 



" Ausbr., pp. 68, i ; 67, 4. 



'' Quaest., p. 28. 



'^ Ausbr., p. 67, 4. 



"Att. VI, 8, 1-2. 



^ Ausbr., p. 67, 4; cf. B. G., VIII, 50, 4. 



^ Ausbr., p. 68, i ; Quaest., p. 28. 



^ Ausbr., p. 68, i ; Quaest., pp. 24, 27. 



" Quaest., pp. 24-25. 



296 



