[122]
The citizens of Halesa, who
were till lately in the enjoyment of their own laws, in return for the numerous and
great services and good deeds done both by themselves and by their ancestors to our
republic, lately in the consulship of Lucius Licinius and Quintus Mucius, requested
laws from our senate, as they had disputes among themselves about the elections into
their senate. The senate, by a very honourable decree, voted that Caius Claudius
Pulcher, the son of Appius the praetor, should give them laws to regulate their
elections into their senate. Caius Claudius, taking as his counselors all the
Marcelli who were then alive, with their advice gave laws to the men of Halesa in
which he laid down many rules about the age of the men who might be elected; that no
one might be under thirty years of age; about trade,—that no one engaged
in it might be elected; about their income, and about all other matters; all which
regulations prevailed till that man became praetor by the authority of our
magistrates, and with the cordial good-will of the men of Halesa. But from him even
a crier who was desirous of it, bought that rank for a sum of money, and boys
sixteen and seventeen years old purchased the title of senator; and that which the
men of Halesa, our most ancient and faithful allies and friends, had petitioned, and
that successfully, at Rome, to have put on
such a footing that it might not be lawful for men to be elected even by vote, he
now made easy to be obtained by bribery.
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