[53]
And, therefore, among the people so
disparaged your pretensions, you must not think that there were none who had
taken offence at the intrepid spirit which you then displayed; who were
able, perhaps, to keep you, incautious as you were, from arriving at that
rank, but will never be able to move you when you are on your guard and
watchful against them.
Have these arguments had any influence with you? “Have you any
doubt,” says he, “that a coalition was entered into
against me, when you see that Plancius and Plotius gained the votes of the
majority of the tribes?” But could they have acted in concert if
the tribes did not give their votes in concert? But some of the tribes gave
almost the very same number of votes for each of them. Yes, when at the
preceding comitia those two had been already
almost elected and declared. Although even that fact would not necessarily
involve any suspicion of a coalition. For our ancestors would never have
established a rule of casting lots for the aedileship, if they had not seen
that it was possible that the competitors should have had an equal number of
votes.
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