What then is the object of these comitia?  Or what is the meaning of this canvassing which that most wise and dignified citizen, Lucius Caesar, has introduced into the senate?  He has proposed to vote a military command to one who is certainly a most illustrious and unimpeachable man, but still only a private individual.  And by doing so he has imposed a heavy burden upon us.  Suppose I agree, shall I by so doing countenance the introduction of the practice of canvassing into the senate house?  Suppose I vote against it, shall I appear as if I were in the comitia to have refused an honour to a man who is one of my greatest friends?  But if we are to have the comitia in the senate, let us ask for votes, let us canvass, let a voting tablet be given us, just as one is given to the people.  Why do you, O Caesar, allow it to be so managed that either a most illustrious man, if your proposition be not agreed too, shall appear to have received a repulse, or else that one of us shall appear to have been passed over, if, while we are men of equal dignity, we are not considered worthy of equal honour?

But (for this is what I hear is said,) I myself gave by my own vote an extraordinary commission to Caius Caesar.  Ay, indeed, for he had given me extraordinary protection, when I say me, I mean he had given it to the senate and to the Roman people.  Was I to refuse giving an extraordinary military command to that man from whom the republic had received protection which had never even been thought of, but that still was of so much consequence that without it she could not have been safe?  There were only the alternatives of taking his army from him, or giving him such a command.  For on what principle or by what means can an army be retained by a man who has not been invested with any military command?  We must not, therefore, think that a thing has been given to a man which has, in fact, not been taken away from him.  You would, O conscript fathers, have taken a command away from Caius Caesar, if you had not given him one.  The veteran soldiers, who, following his authority and command and name, had taken up arms in the cause of the republic, desired to be commanded by him.  The Martial legion and the fourth legion had submitted to the authority of the senate, and had devoted themselves to uphold the dignity of the republic, in such a way as to feel that they had a right to demand Caius Caesar for their commander.  It was the necessity of the war that invested Caius Caesar with military command, the senate only gave him the ensigns of it.  But I beg you to tell me, O Lucius Caesar,—­I am aware that I am arguing with a man of the greatest experience,—­when did the senate ever confer a military command on a private individual who was in a state of inactivity, and doing nothing?