5. C.Cosconius, praetor in B. C. 63, the same year that Cicero was consul, obtained in the following-year the province of Further Spain, with the title of proconsul, and was, it seems, on his return accused of extortion, but acquitted. He was one of the twenty commissioners appointed in B. C. 59 to carry into execution the agrarian law of Julius Caesar for dividing the public lands in Campania, but he died in this year, and his vacant place was offered to Cicero by Caesar, who wished to withdraw him from the threatened attack of Clodius. This offer, however, was refused by Cicero. (Cic. pro Sull. 14, in Vatin. 5; comp. V. Max. 8.1.8; Cic. Att. 2.19, 9.2, A; Quint. Inst. 12.1. . § 16.)