[84]
“But a great and intolerable injury was done to Andrus Sextilius.” As,
when his wife Valeria had died without a will, Flaccus managed the business in such a way as
if the inheritance belonged to himself. And in that I should be glad to know what you find
fault with,—is it, that he asserted anything which was false? How do you prove it?
“She was,” says he, “a person of good family.” O man,
learned in the law! What? cannot inheritances legally come from women of good family?
“She was,” says he, “under the power of her husband.”
Now I understand you; but was she so by use 1 or
by purchase? It could not be by use for legitimate guardianship cannot be annulled except by
the consent of all the guardians. By purchase? Then it must have been with the consent of all
of them; and certainly you will not say that that of Flaccus was obtained.
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1 The marriage per coemptionem has already been explained. “Marriage was also effected by usus, if a woman lived with a man for a whole year as his wife.” Smith, Dict, Ant. p. 604 v. Marriage, q. v.
M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge, B. A. London. Henry G. Bohn, York Street, Covent Garden. 1856.
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