33.
Although Caesar considered it ruinous to leave the war
and the enemy, yet, being well aware what great evils generally arise from
internal dissensions, lest a state so powerful and so closely connected with the
Roman people, which he himself had always
fostered and honored in every respect, should have recourse to violence and
arms, and that the party which had less confidence in its own power should
summon aid from Vercingetorix, he determined to anticipate this
movement; and because, by the laws of the Aedui, it was not
permitted those who held the supreme authority to leave the country, he
determined to go in person to the Aedui, lest he should appear to
infringe upon their government and laws, and summoned all the senate, and those
between whom the dispute was, to meet him at Decetia.
When almost all the state had assembled there, and he was informed that one
brother had been declared magistrate by the other, when only a few persons were
privately summoned for the purpose, at a different time and place from what he
ought, whereas the laws not only forbade two belonging to one family to be
elected magistrates while each was alive, but even deterred them from being in
the senate, he compelled Cotus to resign his office; he ordered
Convictolitanis, who had been elected by the priests, according
to the usage of the state, in the presence of the magistrates, to hold the
supreme authority.
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