C. Julius Caesar, Commentaries on the Civil War
William Duncan, Ed.

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Thus nothing but tumult and violence was to be seen in the public debates. Caesar's friends had no time given them to inform him of what passed. Even the tribunes themselves were not exempt from danger, nor durst they have recourse to that right of intercession, which Sylla had left them, as the last bulwark of liberty; insomuch that the seventh day after entering upon their office, they saw themselves obliged to provide for their safety; whereas in former times, the most turbulent and seditious tribunes never began to apprehend themselves in danger, till towards the eighth month of their administration. Recourse was had to that rigid and ultimate decree which was never used but in the greatest extremities, when the city was threatened with ruin and conflagration: "That the consuls, the pretors, the tribunes of the people, and the proconsuls that were near Rome, should take care that the commonwealth received no detriment." This decree passed the seventh of January; so that during the first five days in which it was permitted the senate to assemble, after Lentulus's entrance upon the consulship, (for two days are always appropriated to the holding of the comitia,) the most severe and rigorous resolutions were taken, both in relation to Caesar's government, and the tribunes of the people, men of eminent worth and dignity. The tribunes immediately quitted the city, and fled to Caesar, who was then at Ravenna, waiting an answer to his late demands, whose equity he hoped would dispose all parties to entertain thoughts of peace.