ABSTRACT
By his thirteenth year Plancus had taken the first steps on the cursus honorum and may well have started a family. On grounds of chronological probability, one would expect him to have married by this time, and he may have had a son by 55, though neither wife nor child is certain. He was probably quaestor and thus a senator in 55, as he became a legate under Caesar in 54. The quaestorship may be the only office to which Plancus was ever elected in the traditional manner. Most of the other legates thought along the same lines: Caesarian patronage, the votes of demobilized soldiers, and Gallic gold would be consequences of their loyalty. Caesar's officers belonged to the literate class and certainly exchanged messages with friends in Rome, so he was relatively well informed. Caesar was an easy target: seated, prevented from much movement by the cumbersome toga, and without bodyguard when in the Senate.
