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[19]
What then is the object of these comitia? or what is
the meaning of this canvassing which that most wise and dignified citizen,
Lucius Caesar, has introduced into the senate? He has proposed to vote a
military command to one who is certainly a most illustrious and unimpeachable
man, but still only a private individual. And by doing so he has imposed a heavy
burden upon us. Suppose I agree; shall I by so doing countenance the
introduction of the practice of canvassing into the senate-house? Suppose I vote
against it; shall I appear as if I were in the comitia to have refused an honor to a man who is one of my
greatest friends? But if we are to have the comitia
in the senate, let us ask for votes, let us canvass; let a voting-tablet be
given us, just as one is given to the people. Why do you, O Caesar, allow it to
be so managed that either a most illustrious man, if your proposition be not
agreed to, shall appear to have received a repulse, or else that one of us shall
appear to have been passed over, if, while we were men of equal dignity, we are
not considered worthy of equal honor?
M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge. London. George Bell & Sons. 1903.
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