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29This was the condition of the Romans in the city at that time. And, as if it were not sufficient for them to be abused by Antony, one Lucius Trebellius and Publius Cornelius Dolabella, tribunes, fell to quarrelling. The latter championed the cause of the debtors, to which class he belonged, and had therefore changed from the ranks of the patricians to the plebs, in order to secure the tribuneship. 2The former claimed to represent the nobles, but issued edicts and had recourse to murders no less than the other. This, too, naturally resulted in great turmoil and many weapons were everywhere to be seen, although the senators had commanded that no changes should be made before Caesar’s arrival, and Antony that no private individual in the city should carry arms. As the tribunes, however, paid no attention to these orders, but resorted to absolutely every sort of measure against each other and against the men just mentioned, a third party arose, consisting of Antony and the senate. For in order to let it be thought that his weapons and the authority that resulted from their possession, an authority which he had already usurped, had been granted by that body, he got the privilege of keeping soldiers within the walls and of helping the other tribunes to guard the city. After this Antony did whatever he desired with a kind of legal right, while Dolabella and Trebellius were nominally guilty of violence; but their effrontery and resources led them to resist both each other and him, as if they too had received some position of command from the senate.
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