Narrative in Eighth Book of the " Gallic War" 43 



offered by the conservatives was greater, seemingly, than Caesar 

 and Antonius had counted on : Contendehat . . . contra f actionem 

 et potentiam paucortim, qui Antonii repulsa Caesaris decedentis 

 gratiam convcllere cupiebant. Antonius may therefore be as- 

 sumed to have despatched a courier to Nemetocenna. The augu- 

 ral election was held, let us say, July 20. Although no professio 

 was required of candidates in connection with the priestly elec- 

 tions, it is nevertheless reasonable to suppose that the practice of 

 issuing an edict a trinundinum in advance obtained for these elec- 

 tions as well as for the elections of magistrates. The trinundinum 

 was at least seventeen days. The edict for the sacerdotal election 

 in 50 would be issued not later than July 4. It is obvious that a 

 message from Rome sent after that date could not bring Caesar 

 into Italy by July 20, much less enable him to do any electioneer- 

 ing work and still leave time for the voters of his province to 

 attend the election. Antonius's message was certainly sent before 

 July 4. As soon as Antonius found from the election edict that 

 his hope of further assistance from Caesar in the way indicated 

 was impossible of fulfillment, it would have been natural to des- 

 patch another message to Caesar informing him of the actual 

 date of the election, in order than he might waste as little time 

 as possible on a fruitless errand. But it is evident that no such 

 message was sent. The message that did intercept Caesar an- 

 nounced Antonius's victory. An explanation of this state of 

 affairs may be conjectured. 



At the time when Antonius sent his first message some of the 

 elections, including at least the sacerdotal, perhaps also the con- 

 sular, had not yet been proclaimed, and, for some reason no longer 

 discernible, seemed likely to be held not earlier than the latter part 

 of August. This late date would leave time to inform Caesar of 

 the bitter fight in prospect against Antonius's candidacy and for 

 Caesar to make further efforts, this time in person, to secure a 

 large vote from Cisalpine Gaul. Caesar had intended all the 

 while to make the round of the lower province which Hirtius 

 describes and at a time not far from the period in which it was 

 made. Antonius knew this. Compliance with a suggestion from 

 him that Caesar come to Italy immediately would require the latter 



335 



