§45.21.1M’. Iuventius Talna praetor, cuius inter cives et peregrinos iurisdictio erat, populum adversus Rhodios incitabat rogationemque promulgaverat, §45.21.2ut Rhodiis bellum indiceretur, et ex magistratibus eius anni deligerent, qui ad id bellum cum classe mitteretur, se eum sperans futurum esse.
Manius Iuventius Talna, the praetor whose jurisdiction lay between citizens and foreigners, was inciting the people against the Rhodians and had published a proposal, that war should be declared on the Rhodians, and that they should choose from the magistrates of that year one who should be sent with a fleet to that war, hoping that he himself would be the one.
§45.21.3huic actioni M. Antonius et M. Pomponius tribuni plebis adversabantur.
This action was opposed by Marcus Antonius and Marcus Pomponius, tribunes of the plebs.
§45.21.4sed et praetor novo maloque exemplo rem ingressus erat, quod non ante consulto senatu, non consulibus certioribus factis de sua unius sententia rogationem ferret, vellent iuberentne Rhodiis bellum indici, §45.21.5cum antea semper prius senatus de bello consultus esset, deinde ex auctoritate patrum ad populum latum, §45.21.6et tribuni plebis, cum ita traditum esset, ne quis prius intercederet legi, quam privatis suadendi dissuadendique legem potestas facta esset, eoque persaepe evenisset, ut et, qui non professi essent se intercessuros, animadversis vitiis legis ex oratione dissuadentium intercederent, et, qui ad intercedendum venissent, desisterent victi auctoritatibus suadentium legem. §45.21.7tum inter praetorem tribunosque omnia intempestive agendi certamen erat: §45.21.8tribuni festinationem praetoris ante tempus intercedendo in adventum imperatoris
But the praetor also had entered upon the matter with a new and bad precedent, because without previously consulting the senate and without informing the consuls, solely on his own opinion, he brought forward a proposal as to whether they wished and ordered war to be declared on the Rhodians, whereas previously the senate had always been consulted first about war, and then the proposal had been brought before the people on the authority of the senators, and the tribunes of the plebs likewise, although it had been so handed down by tradition that no one should interpose a veto on a bill before private citizens had been given the opportunity of speaking for or against the law, and consequently it had very often happened both that those who had not declared that they would veto it did so after noticing the defects of the bill from the speech of those opposing it, and that those who had come to veto it desisted, overcome by the arguments of those supporting the law— at that time, there was a rivalry between the praetor and the tribunes in doing everything unseasonably: the tribunes, by interposing their veto before the proper time, [...] the haste of the praetor until the arrival of the commander...