[416] On the nundinæ and the next day no comitia and no meeting of the senate could be held.
[417] Candidate for the ædileship, of whom we know nothing.
[418] Apparently a poor lantern, whose sides were made of canvas instead of horn.
[419] Quintus Cicero was in Sardinia as Pompey's legatus as superintendent of the corn-supply, to which office he had been appointed in August. The letter is written not earlier than the 10th of December, for the new tribunes for B.C. 56 have come into office, and not later than the 16th, because on the 17th the Saturnalia began. Perhaps as the senate is summoned and presided over by Lupus, it is on the 10th, the day of his entrance upon office.
[420] "Full," that is, for the time of year. A "full house" is elsewhere mentioned as between three and four hundred.
[421] P. Rutilius Lupus, one of the new tribunes.
[422] This refers to Cicero's attempts to exempt the ager publicus in Campania from being divided (see Letter [XXIV], p. [55]); and not only to his speeches against Rullus. It was because Cæsar disregarded the ancient exception of this land from such distribution that Cicero opposed his bill, and refused to serve on the commission.
[423] Nihil vos moramur were the words used by the presiding magistrate, indicating that he had no more business to bring before the senate. If no one said anything, the senate was dismissed; but any magistrate, or magistrate-designate, could speak, and so continue the sitting up to nightfall, when the house stood adjourned.
[424] Because consul-designate. L. Racilius, one of the new tribunes.
[425] The sortitio iudicum was performed by the prætor drawing out the required number of names from the urn, which contained the names of all liable to serve. The accused could, however, challenge a certain number, and the prætor had then to draw others.