would
have still greater difficulty. Corrupt as the arrangement was, it seems
not to have come under any existing law, and both escaped punishment.
Appius went as proconsul to Cilicia, in spite of the _lex curiata_ not
being passed, but Domitius Ahenobarbus seems not to have had a province.
The object of Domitius Calvinus and Memmius in making the compact was to
secure their own election, which the existing consuls had many means of
assisting, but it is not clear what Memmius's object in disclosing it
was. Perhaps anger on finding his hopes gone, and an idea that anything
that humiliated Ahenobarbus would be pleasing to Caesar. He also seems to
have quarrelled with Calvinus. Gaius Memmius Gemellus is not to be
confounded with Gaius Memmius the tribune mentioned in the next letter.]

[Footnote 634: There is considerable uncertainty as to the exact nature
of _iudicium tacitum_, here rendered "a trial with closed doors," on the
analogy of the _senatus consultum tacitum_ described by Capitolinus, _in
Gordian_. ch. xii. It is not, I think, mentioned elsewhere (_iudiciis
tacitis_ of 2 _Off._ Sec. 24, is a general expression for "anonymous
expressions of opinion"), and the passage in Plutarch (_Cato min._ 44)
introduces a new difficulty, for it indicates a court in which
candidates _after_ election are to purge themselves. Again, _quae erant
omnibus sortita_ is very difficult. Cicero nowhere else, I believe, uses
the passive _sortitus_. But, passing that, what are the _consilia_
meant? The tense and mood shew, I think, that the words are explanatory
by the writer, not part of the decree. I venture, contrary to all
editors, to take _omnibus_ as dative, and to suppose that the _consilia_
meant are those of the _album iudicum_ who had been selected to try
cases of _ambitus_, of which many were expected. There is no proof that
the _iudices_ in a _iudicium tacitum_ had to be senators, and the names
in the next sentence point the other way. The senate proposed that the
law should allow this selection from the _album_ to form the _iudicium
tacitum_, which would give no public verdict, but on whose report they
could afterwards act.]

[Footnote 635: M. AEmilius Scaurus was acquitted on the 2nd of September
on a charge of extortion in Sardinia. The trial had been hurried on lest
he should use the Sardinian money in bribing for the consulship. Hence
he could not begin distributing his gifts to the electors till after
September 2nd, and