De provinciis consularibus

Title: De provinciis consularibus
Work type: Cicero - I - Works
Description:

The dating of the speech is uncertain, but the termini post quem and ante quem can be established with relative security. In De prov. 14 Cicero alludes to the session of the Senate of 15. May 56 in which it was denied the supplication for the victory against the rebel king of Judea Aristobulus and his son Alexander (see also Q. fr. 2, 7, 1). Cicero imagines that the response of the senate would come to Gabinius paucis diebus and, since it took at least four or five weeks to reach Syria, we can think that the speech was held towards the end of June. This date fits perfectly with the terminus ante quem, that is the presentation of the candidacies of the consuls, set seventeen days before the elections, which were held in July. According to the aforementioned Lex Sempronia, the assignment of the provinces to the consuls had to take place before this date, to avoid undue pressure on the senators by the newly elected consuls.

[Gianmario Cattaneo]


Keywords: Éloquence - Eloquenza - Eloquence, Histoire - Storia - History, Politique - Politica - Politics
Chronology: A 56 [Act . Pol.]   De provinciis consularibus Cicero supported the proposal of the consular Publius Servilius Vatia Isauricus, consul in 79, who had suggested the assignment of Syria and Macedonia (De prov. 3). In this way, Caesar could have continued to exercise the proconsulate on the Gaul. [Gianmario Cattaneo]
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