r disadvantage, the abandonment of the
weighty resolution--as, indeed, it was reported to me--that the senate
should pass no decree until my case had been decided, and that, too, in
the case of a measure which was not only not urgent, but even contrary
to custom and unprecedented. For I think there is no precedent for
voting the provincial outfit of magistrates when still only designate:
so that, since in a matter like this the firm line[373] on which my
cause had been taken up has been infringed, there is now no reason why
any decree should not be passed. It is not surprising that those friends
to whom the question was referred assented, for it was difficult to find
anyone to express an opinion openly against proposals so advantageous to
two consuls. It would in any case have been difficult not to be
complaisant to such a warm friend as Lentulus, or to Metellus after the
exceedingly kind way in which he put aside his quarrel with me. But I
fear that, while failing to keep a hold on them, we have lost the
tribunes. How this matter has occurred, and in what position the whole
business stands, I would have you write to me, and in the same spirit as
before: for your outspoken candour, even if not altogether pleasant, is
yet what I prefer.

10 December.

[Footnote 371: The phrase _ornare provincias, ornare consules_, etc.,
means the vote in the senate deciding the number of troops, amount of
money, and other outfit that the magistrates going to their provinces
were to have. The provinces to be taken by outgoing consuls were decided
before the elections--in this case they were Cilicia and Spain. But the
_ornatio_ usually took place after the consuls had entered on their
office, _i.e._, after the 1st of January. For this year, however--we
don't know why--it had taken place before the 1st of December, B.C. 58.
The result of this would be that the new tribunes for B.C. 57--entering
on their office 10th December, B.C. 58--would have no voice in the
matter, and would thus lose a great hold on the consuls. Most of these
tribunes were supporters of Cicero, while he was doubtful as to one of
the consuls--Q. Caecilius Metellus Nepos. He thinks, therefore, that his
cause has lost by this measure, for the tribunes will have less power of
putting force on the consuls to do anything for him, and yet the same
power of stopping them should they wish to do anything of their own
accord. Besides, the new tribunes may be alienated by what the