Another weapon which he used freely was his unlimited right of veto as tribune.  As early as April Caelius appreciated how successful these tactics would be, and he saw the dilemma in which they would put the Conservatives, for he writes to Cicero:  “This is what I have to tell you:  if they put pressure at every point on Curio, Caesar will defend his right to exercise the veto; if, as seems likely, they shrink [from overruling him], Caesar will stay [in his province] as long as he likes.”  The veto power was the weapon which he used against the senate at the meeting of that body on the first of December, to which reference has already been made.  The elections in July had gone against Caesar.  Two Conservatives had been returned as consuls.  In the autumn the senate had found legal means of depriving Caesar of two of his legions.  Talk of a compromise was dying down.  Pompey, who had been desperately ill in the spring, had regained his strength.  He had been exasperated by the savage attacks of Curio.  Sensational stories of the movements of Caesar’s troops in the North were whispered in the forum, and increased the tension.  In the autumn, for instance, Caesar had occasion to pay a visit to the towns in northern Italy to thank them for their support of Mark Antony, his candidate for the tribunate, and the wild rumor flew to Rome that he had advanced four legions to Placentia,[137] that his march on the city had begun, and tumult and confusion followed.  It was in these circumstances that the consul Marcellus moved in the senate that successors be sent to take over Caesar’s provinces, but the motion was blocked by the veto of Curio, whereupon the consul cried out:  “If I am prevented by the vote of the senate from taking steps for the public safety, I will take such steps on my own responsibility as consul.”  After saying this he darted out of the senate and proceeded to the suburbs with his colleague, where he presented a sword to Pompey, and said:  “My colleague and I command you to march against Caesar in behalf of your country, and we give you for this purpose the army now at Capua, or in any other part of Italy, and whatever additional forces you choose to levy."[138] Curio had accomplished his purpose.  He had shown that Pompey as well as Caesar was a menace to the state; he had prevented Caesar’s recall; he had shown Antony, who was to succeed him in the tribunate, how to exasperate the senate into using coercive measures against his sacrosanct person as tribune and thus justify Caesar’s course in the war, and he had goaded the Conservatives into taking the first overt step in the war by commissioning Pompey to begin a campaign against Caesar without any authorization from the senate or the people.