[238] The old territory of Capua and the Stellatian Plain had been specially reserved from distribution under the laws of the Gracchi, and this reservation had not been repealed in subsequent laws: ad subsidia reipublicæ vectigalem relictum (Suet. Cæs. 20; cp. Cic. 2 Phil. § 101).
[239] According to Suetonius 20,000 citizens had allotments on the ager publicus in Campania. But Dio says (xxxviii. 1) that the Campanian land was exempted by the lex Iulia also. Its settlement was probably later, by colonies of Cæsar's veterans. A iugerum is five-eighths of an acre.
[240] See Letter [XXIX], p. [82]. They were abolished B.C. 60.
[241] This and the mention of Cæsar's "army" (a bodyguard) is explained by Suet. Cæs. 20: "Having promulgated his agrarian law, Cæsar expelled his colleague, Bibulus, by force of arms from the Forum when trying to stop proceedings by announcing bad omens ... and finally reduced him to such despair that for the rest of his year of office he confined himself to his house and only announced his bad omens by means of edicts." Bibulus appears to have been hustled by the mob also.
[242] πρόσθε λέων ὄπιθεν δὲ ——. Cicero leaves Atticus, as he often does, to fill up the rest of the line, δράκων, μέσση δὲ χίμαιρα (Hom. Il. vi. 181). He means, of course, that Quintus is inconsistent.
[243] The question seems to be as to goods brought to a port and paying duty, and then, not finding a sale, being transferred to another port in the same province. The publicani at the second port demanded the payment of a duty again, which Cicero decides against them.
[244] Schutz takes this to mean, "Are the quæstors now doubting as to paying even cistophori?" i.e., are they, so far from paying in Roman denarii, even hesitating to pay in Asiatic? But if so, what is the extremum which Cicero advises Quintus to accept? Prof. Tyrrell, besides, points out that the quæstors could hardly refuse to pay anything for provincial expenses. It is a question between cistophori and denarii. See p. [92].
[245] The marriage of Pompey with Cæsar's daughter Iulia.
[246] ἀδιαφορία, a word taken from the Stoies, huic [Zenoni] summum bonum est in his rebus neutram in partem moveri, quæ ἀδιαφορία ab ipso dicitur (Acad. ii. § 130).
[247] C. Curius, one of the Catiline set, who had been ignominiously expelled from the senate.