Narrative in Eighth Book of the " Gallic War " 5 



ut maioremAppio dolorem jama qiiani postulatio attulerit. Stern- 

 kopf thinks there is a plain allusion to this incident in Fam. VIII, 

 14, 4: Curre, per deos atqiie homines! et quam primum haec 

 risum veni, legis Scantiniae indicium apud Drusum fieri, Appiiim 

 de tabulis et signis agere; crede mihi, est properandum. The con- 

 trast between Appius's plight as defendant under the lex Scan- 

 tinia and his moral fervor as censor, Sternkopf holds, would have 

 been unintelligible to Cicero, if Fam. VIII, 12, had not preceded 

 VIII, 14. 



The date of Fam. VIII, 14, and the date of the augural election 

 Nissen-^ and Sternkopf"*^ seek to establish within close limits by 

 the following argument. In Att. VI, 9, 5, written at Athens 

 October 15, Cicero makes this request of Atticus: Perscribes . . . 

 de censoribus, maximeque de signis, tabulis quid fiat, referaturne. 

 Cicero's desire for information was evidently inspired by Fam. 

 VIII, 14, 4: Scis Appium censorem hie ostenta facere, de signis 

 et tabulis^ de agri modo, de aere alieno acerrime agere? Inas- 

 much as Cicero himself was a collector of works of art, he doubt- 

 less wrote Atticus immediately on receiving Fam. VIII, 14, a 

 fact which, apart from other evidence, would indicate that this 

 last named letter is to be referred to September. Again, in Fam. 

 XIV, 5, I, written at Athens October 16, Cicero remarks : Cognovi 

 enim ex multorum amicorum litferis, quas attulit Acastus, ad arma 

 rem spectare. This observation is in harmony with Fam. VIII, 

 14, 2 : De summa re publica saepe tibi scripsi me in ajinum pacem 

 non videre, et, quo propius ea contentio, quam fieri necesse est, 

 accedit, eo clarius id periculum apparet. Fam. VIII, 14, was 

 surely one of the letters which the slave Acastus delivered to 

 Cicero at the Piraeus October 14, having come from Rome in 

 twenty-one days.-^ September 23 may be taken as its date. The 

 augural election was held between the date of Fam. VIII, 12, and 

 September 23.-^ 



^'Ausbr., p. 69, 2. 

 ^ Quaest., pp. 24, 26-27. 

 * Fam. XIV, 5, i ; Att. VI, 9, i- 



^ Hoffmann {De Origine Belli Civilis Caesariani, pp. 103-04) put the 

 augural election in August. At the same time he dated Fam. VIII, 12, in 



297 



