While reaading something else entirely, I found myself thinking again about what has got to be THE weirdest of all the weird happenings in Rome, 53-49 BC, or PR (pre-Rubicon). I was listening, yet again, to someone hammering poor ol' Jules for crossing that demmed stream and destroying the Republic, yada, yada.

But I remembered something, something that when I think about it, really looms awfully large in the "who-killed-the-Republic" game.

This is Appian's version (which, as usual, I find easier to read than almost anyone else). It is set for the debates in December, 50, about what to do about Caesar and Pompey and the various motions to make BOTH of them stand down and demob their legions:

In the Senate each man was asked for his opinion. Claudius unscrupulously broke up the question and required them to state separately whether successors should be sent to Caesar, and whether Pompeius should be stripped of his command. There was a majority against the latter proposal, and in favor of appointing successors to Caesar. Curio then put the question, whether they thought both of them should lay aside their powers, and twenty-two men voted against, but 370 preferred expediency to conflict and defected to Curio. Whereupon Claudius dismissed the Senate, shouting 'have your way, be slaves to Caesar.' An unfounded rumour then suddenly swept round that Caesar had crossed the Alps and was advancing on Rome. There was great commotion and general panic, and Claudius proposed that the legions at Capua should be mobilized against Caesar as an enemy of the state. When Curio opposed this on the grounds that the reports were untrue, Claudius retorted 'If I am prevented by the vote of a public body from acting in the interests of the state, I shall act on my own authority as consul." With these words, he hurried out of the senate to the suburbs, accompanied by his fellow-consul, and proffered a sword to Pompeoius..."

Emphasis my own; this is Appian Book II, 30-31.

So - the Senate has NOT voted for war - quite the opposite, a very clear majority votes to disarm both generals. This, after the presiding Consul has gone out of his way to try to get his own way, and failed. And then he, on his own authority, declares war on Caesar.

Pardon my stupidity, but does anyone else know of a case where the Senate does not vote for war and the Consul declares it against the majority vote? Shouldn't C. Claudius Marcellus get at least a backward glance as the guy who started the war that doomed the Republic?