8 Frederick Warren Sanford 



VIII, 50, to c. 49,^° and again by the phrase contra consuetudinem, 

 c. 50, 1. Notwithstanding exceptions, it was certainly not Caesar's 

 custom to go to Italy at the close of the winter quarter season, 

 but at the conclusion of the summer's campaign. It is not to the 

 point that the legions spent the entire summer of 50 in the winter 

 quarters of 51/50, if they did, for in c. 50 Hirtius is speaking of 

 Caesar's movements only. 



Caelius's suggestion in Fam. VIII, 14, 4, of the possibility of 

 averting civil war by sending Caesar or Pompeius against the 

 Parthians is consistent with any date that may be assigned to the 

 letter. Perhaps there would have been some additional incentive, 

 at the time when Caelius wrote, to think of Parthia as a possible 

 field for the employment of Caesar or Pompeius, if the letter was 

 written in late July or early August, before the retreat of the 

 Parthians in the present summer could have been known in Rome. 



The question of pay for Pompeius's troops may or may not 

 have come up at the same time in 50 as in 51. Granted that it 

 did, it follows that Lange's date for Fam. VIII, 14, is too early. 

 But there is nothing in Fam. VIII, 14, 4, or elsewhere to show 

 how long a time elapsed between the debate in 50 and the with- 

 drawal of Curio's veto. It may have been very short. 



Lange undoubtedly dated the election of censors in 50 too early. 

 Whether or not the election occurred in August, it certainly ante- 

 dated Fam. VIII, 12, by a considerable period of time, as this 

 letter shows that Appius was censor at the beginning of the quar- 

 rel between Caelius and Appius and that the quarrel was some- 

 what prolonged. 



Plutarch's evidence in regard to the relative dates of the tribu- 

 nician and augural elections, despite his proneness to error in 

 matters of chronology, is not lightly to be set aside. As to the 

 period in which the annual elections were held, it appears from 

 Att. VI, 8, 2, that Batonius, whom Cicero met at Ephesus Septem- 

 ber 29, knew the result of the elections of praetors, tribunes, and 

 consuls. If it be assumed that Batonius, or the news that he 

 brought, came directly from Rome, the time from Rome to 



' Cj. c. 49, I, Caesar in Belgio cum hiemaret; also c. 46, 6, and note 35- 



300 



