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Epistulae ad Familiares, I. ix.

you are to me, and that I mean not only to impress that fact upon yourself, but also to ensure its recognition by everybody in the world, yes, and by all generations to come.

²⁵ Appius has now made a public declaration in the Senate of what he used often to assert before in private conversation, "that if he were allowed to get a law through the comitia curiata he would cast lots with his colleague for their respective provinces, but that if no such law were passed, he would come to an arrangement with his colleague and become your successor in Cilicia; that the passing of such a law in the comitia curiata, while formally important for a consul, is not indispensable; and that holding the province as he did by a decree of the Senate, he would hold imperium also under the law of Sulla, until such time as he entered the city."^[1] What your several friends and relations write to you about it respectively I cannot tell; I only know that opinions differ. There is a certain section who think you would be within your rights in not resigning your province, because, as they say, your successor's appointment lacks the sanction of a law passed in the comitia curiata. There are others, too, who think that, if you do retire, you can leave behind you a representative in charge of the province.

I am myself not so sure of the legal point (though that is not so very doubtful either), as I am of this, that it is due to your exalted position, your dignity, and your kindness (the exercise of which I know is a great and constant satisfaction to you), to

↑ What Appius Claudius Pulcher, consul this year (54) with L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, seems to mean is this: "If before my year is out I can get a Lex Curiata (i.e. a formal ratification of my proconsular imperium by the people), well and good; I shall follow the ordinary procedure and draw lots with my colleague for our provinces next year. If, however, such a Lex Curiata is (as so often happens) vetoed by a tribune, I shall make shift to do without it, and arrange with my colleague to take the province which suits me best, i.e. Cilicia. A consul may very well dispense with a Lex Curiata, which is practically superseded by the Lex Cornelia (Sulla's law de provinciis ordinandis), a law which makes no reference to a Lex Curiata, and provides, among other things, for the retention by a provincial governor of his proconsular imperium up to the day he re-enters Rome—a provision which has its potentialities." And Cicero evidently thinks that Appius would be legally justified.

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[1] What Appius Claudius Pulcher, consul this year (54) with L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, seems to mean is this: "If before my year is out I can get a Lex Curiata (i.e. a formal ratification of my proconsular imperium by the people), well and good; I shall follow the ordinary procedure and draw lots with my colleague for our provinces next year. If, however, such a Lex Curiata is (as so often happens) vetoed by a tribune, I shall make shift to do without it, and arrange with my colleague to take the province which suits me best, i.e. Cilicia. A consul may very well dispense with a Lex Curiata, which is practically superseded by the Lex Cornelia (Sulla's law de provinciis ordinandis), a law which makes no reference to a Lex Curiata, and provides, among other things, for the retention by a provincial governor of his proconsular imperium up to the day he re-enters Rome—a provision which has its potentialities." And Cicero evidently thinks that Appius would be legally justified.

[1]