Editing Gaius Volusenus (section)

==Political career?==
Based on a [[Textual criticism|"hopelessly corrupt" reading]]<ref>John R. King, ''The Fourteen Philippic Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero'' (Oxford, 1878), p. 262 [https://books.google.com/books?id=vO06AAAAcAAJ&dq=Volusenus+%22The+reading+in+this+sentence+is+hopelessly+corrupt%22&pg=PA261 online.]</ref> of one of Cicero's speeches against [[Mark Antony]],<ref>[[Cicero]], ''Philippics'' 14.3.</ref> Volusenus was sometimes identified by 19th-century scholars as a [[tribune]] of the ''[[plebs]]'' in 43 BC.<ref>[[Johann Caspar von Orelli|Orelli]] conjectured that the passage should read ''alii praetorem, tribunum Volusienum, ego''. "It has been assumed that this man is C. Volusenus Quadratus … but this is mere guessing," notes [[George Long (scholar)|George Long]], ''M. Tullii Ciceronis orationes'' (London, 1858), vol. 4, p. 704 [https://books.google.com/books?id=pBVBAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22but+this+is+mere+guessing%22+intitle%3ATullii+intitle%3ACiceronis+intitle%3Aorationes&pg=PA704 online.]</ref> The passage, and Volusenus's documented loyalty to Caesar, was thus interpreted to mean that he was a supporter of [[Mark Antony]], but two other manuscripts indicate that the proper noun is in fact a verb ''(voluissent)'' and neither Cicero nor any other source mentions Volusenus among Antony's followers.<ref>John Richard King, ''The Philippic Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1878, 2nd ed.), p. 336 [https://books.google.com/books?id=zTjRAAAAMAAJ&dq=Volusenus+inauthor%3ACicero&pg=PA336 online.]</ref> [[T.R.S. Broughton]] does not record a plebeian tribunate for Volusenus in ''The Magistrates of the Roman Republic'', confirming only that Volusenus was a military tribune in 56<ref>Caesar, ''Bellum Gallicum'' 3.5.2.</ref> and held the rank of ''praefectus equitum'' in 52–51<ref>[[Aulus Hirtius]], ''Bellum Gallicum'' 8.48; [[Cassius Dio]] 40.43.1.</ref> and again in 48.<ref>[[T.R.S. Broughton|Broughton]] reassessed Volusenus's career in light of Syme's observations ''(see above)'' for the publication of volume 3 of ''The Magistrates of the Roman Republic'' (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1984), p. 224. See also ''MRR''<sup>2</sup> (1952), pp. 212, 239, 246 (where the ''nomen'' is incorrectly given as Volusius), and 284. Broughton originally had counted the Volusenus who was tribune in 56 and  the prefect Volusenus Quadratus as two different men. He excludes the vexed passage in the ''Phillippics''.</ref>