[77]
What really is of vital importance, what is formidable, what is to be dreaded by
every virtuous man, is, that if through any influence this man escapes from this
trial, he must be among the judges; he must give his decision on the lives of Roman
citizens; he must be standard-bearer in the army of that man 1 who wishes to possess undisputed sway over our
courts of justice. This the Roman people refuses; this it will never endure; the
whole people raises an outcry, and gives you leave, if you are delighted with these
men, if you wish from such a set to add splendour to your order, and an ornament to
the senate-house, to have that fellow among you as a senator, to have him even as a
judge in your own cases, if you choose; but men who are not of your body, men to
whom the admirable Cornelian laws do not give the power of objecting to more than
three judges, do not choose that this man, so cruel, so wicked, so infamous should
sit as judge in matters in which they are concerned.
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1 Hortensius is meant here.
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