[Footnote 410: P. Sestius, the tribune favourable to Cicero, afterwards defended by him.] [Footnote 411: Mr. Purser's reading of _nisi anteferret_ before _proscripsit_ seems to me to darken the passage. What happened was this. Marcellinus's _sententia_ was never put to the vote, because Metellus, Appius, and Hortensius (Cicero seems to mean him) talked out the sitting. Accordingly, Marcellinus published it, _i.e._, put it up outside the Curia to be read: and under it he (or some other magistrate whose name has dropped out of the text) put a notice that he was going to "watch the sky" all the _dies comitiales_, so as to prevent the election being held. But this had been rendered inoperative by Clodius's amendment of the _lex Ælia Fufia_ (see 2 _Phil._ § 81)--or at any rate of doubtful validity--and, accordingly, the only thing left was the _obnuntiatio_ by a magistrate, which Milo proceeded to make. The rule, however was that such _obnuntiatio_ must be made before the _comitia_ were begun (2 _Phil. ib._), which again could not begin till sunrise. Hence Milo's early visit to the _campus_. For the meaning of _proposita_ see Letter XLVII.] [Footnote 412: After which the _comitia_ could not be begun.] [Footnote 413: P. Clodius, his brother Appius, and his _cousin_ Metellus Nepos.] [Footnote 414: Metellus means that he shall take the necessary auspices for the _comitia_ in the _comitium_, before going to the _campus_ to take the votes.] [Footnote 415: Generally called _inter duos lucos_, the road down the Capitolium towards the Campus Martius, originally so called as being between the two heads of the mountain. It was the spot traditionally assigned to the "asylum" of Romulus.] [Footnote 416: On the _nundinæ_ and the next day no _comitia_ and no meeting of the senate could be held.] [Footnote 417: Candidate for the ædileship, of whom we know nothing.] [Footnote 418: Apparently a poor lantern, whose sides were made of canvas instead of horn.] XCII (Q FR II, 1) TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS (IN SARDINIA[419]) ROME (10 DECEMBER) [Sidenote: B.C. 57, ÆT. 49]