[102] In comparison with the motive of Antony given here, note the ridiculous reasons presented in the speech of Fufius Calenus as published by Dio (46, 17-19). There Antony is said to have offered the diadem for the very purpose of shocking Caesar to reason and thus to cause him to reject the proffered crown. 22. [103] O. E. Schmidt, Jahrb. für Class. Philol. Sup. 13, p. 682 suggests that this section should follow immediately upon the words at the beginning of section 21: ‘τοιαῦτα μὲν δὴ τότε ἐλέγετο,’ thus making a more connected account of the accusation of the tribunes and their subsequent restitution. Since, however, Nicolaus is about to write of the annual elections, his order of relating these events is not unnatural. Nicolaus declares that Cinna secured the recall of the tribunes through a decree passed while Caesar was yet alive; Appian 2, 122 alludes to the tribunes as still being in exile on March 16, 44 B.C., when Brutus and Cassius descended from the Capitoline and urged that they be recalled. E. Meyer, Caesars Monarchie, p. 527, n. 2, is inclined to favor the version of Nicolaus. [104] The decree was that of the tribune L. Antonius, mentioned by Cicero (Phil. 7, 16). Suetonius, Caes., 41 and Dio 43, 51 refer to the legal right of Caesar to appoint one half of the total number of magistrates for 3 years in advance; at the expiration of this period his return from his expedition against the Parthians was to have been expected. The decree of Antonius was enacted between December 10, 45 B.C., the day on which the newly elected tribunes entered into office, and March 15, 44 B.C. (see Sternkopf, Ciceros ausgewählte Reden, vol. 9, p. 33). Appian, 2, 128; 2, 138, says that Caesar appointed magistrates for 5 years in advance; Suetonius, Caes., 76, speaks of ‘several’ years; Nicolaus is corroborated by Cicero (Att. 14, 6, 2), ‘Etiamne consules et tribunos pl. in _biennium_ quos ille voluit.’ See also Cic., Fam., 10, 32, 2. Among the historians, Nicolaus alone names Pansa and Hirtius, Brutus and Plancus, but Cicero speaks of the former pair as ‘consules designati’ in Philippic 3, 37 and 39, and of the latter pair as ‘consules designati’ in Philippic 3, 38. [105] Antony.