ne de capite, i.e. because the senate had no legal right to decide questions affecting the caput (life, or civil rights) of a citizen, which ought to come before the Comitia Centuriata. On this question see [Introd. Note B].
nudius tertius='nunc dies tertius,' 'the day before yesterday,' according to the Roman inclusive method of reckoning.
hoc, explained by quid iudicarit. The order is 'hoc, quid (ille) qui . . . decrerit de tota re et causa iudicarit, nemini dubium est.' Cicero argues that the absent senators, by assenting to the previous measures, have acknowledged their jurisdiction in the matter. It appears that these measures had been unanimously adopted.
quaesitori, properly of the president of a law-court: here of Cicero, as the conductor of the investigations. Cf. Virg. Aen. 6. 432 'Quaesitor Minos urnam movet.'
legem Semproniam. What this was is not quite certain; but C. Gracchus seems to have passed a law still further securing the right of citizens to appeal to the people as against the arbitrary sentence of a magistrate, though this was already provided by the Lex Valeria and the Lex Porcia (see [on 1. 28]). Cicero refers to the Lex Sempronia here as being the most recent legislation on the subject, and because the fact that summary measures were taken against its author strengthens his argument.
qui autem, etc. On this see [Introd. Note B].
iniussu is a conjectural emendation for the MS. reading iussu, because C. Gracchus was not put to death by order of the people; he was killed by the agents of the consul Opimius, who professed to rely upon the 'ultimum decretum' previously passed by the senate (see [on 1. 4]). Cicero quotes it as a precedent exactly suiting the present case.
sive, 'if on the one hand,' answered by sive below. dederitis is the apodosis to the first clause, exsolvet to the second.