[45]
For the most eminent men of the
state, by whose counsels I acted when I preserved the republic, and in
deference to whose authority I avoided that union with Caesar to which he
invited me, deny that the Julian laws, and the others which were passed
during his consulship, were legally passed at all. And at the same time they
say that the bill for my proscription was passed in a manner contrary to the
safety of the republic, but still without any illegal disregard of the
auspices. Therefore a man of the highest
authority, and of the greatest eloquence, said with great positiveness that
that disaster of mine was a funeral of the republic, but a
funeral performed with all regular solemnity. To me myself it is altogether
excessively complimentary, that my departure should be called the funeral of
the republic. His other expressions I do not find any fault with, but I will
assume them as a foundation for the sentiments which I feel. For if men have
ventured to say that that proposition was carried in a regular manner, for
which there was no precedent nor any law authorizing such a bill to be
carried, merely because no one had been observing the heavens at the time,
had they forgotten that, at the time that the man who carried this bill was
made a plebeian by a lex curiata, it was
announced that a magistrate was observing the heavens? And if it was
absolutely irregular for him to be made a plebeian, how could he be made a
tribune of the people? And if his tribuneship be declared valid, there is
then no one of Caesar's acts which can possibly be invalid; and so, will
not, not merely his tribuneship, but also other matters the most mischievous
imaginable, appear to have been passed with proper regularity, if it be
decided that the religious respect due to the auspices was preserved?
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