Quick questions on Caesar's Gallic command and the road to civil war: HSC Ancient History

Caesar's proconsular command in Gaul, secured for five years in 59 BC through the First Triumvirate and extended by the lex Pompeia Licinia in 55 BC to run until roughly 50 or 49 BC (its exact terminal date disputed then and now), is the foundation of everything that follows. Nine years of continuous war, from the Helvetii and Ariovistus in 58 BC to the crushing of Vercingetorix at Alesia in 52 BC, transformed Caesar's standing at Rome in three ways.

From 51 BC the central political question at Rome became the terms on which Caesar's command would end. Caesar wanted to move straight from his provincial imperium into a second consulship (for 48 BC), standing for election in absentia under the Law of the Ten Tribunes passed in 52 BC, so that he was never, even briefly, a private citizen. The reason was concrete: as a private citizen he could be prosecuted by enemies such as Cato for the irregularities of his first consulship in 59 BC, and conviction would end his career and his dignitas. Keeping his army until he took office guaranteed his safety.