[8]
They who wish
the administration of justice still to remain in the hands of the senatorial body,
complain that they cannot procure proper accusers; those who are able to act as
accusers, complain of the want of impartiality in the decisions. In the meantime the
Roman people, although it suffers under many disadvantages and difficulties, yet desires
nothing in the republic so much as the restoration of the ancient authority and
importance to the courts of law. It is from a regret at the state of our courts of law
that the restoration of the power of the tribunes 1 is so eagerly demanded again. It
is in consequence of the uncertainty of the courts of law, that another class 2 is demanded to determine law-suits; owing to the crimes and infamy of
the judges, even the office of censor, which formerly was used to be accounted too
severe by the people, is now again demanded, and has become popular and praiseworthy.
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1 Sulla in his reform of the constitution on the early aristocratic principles, left to the tribunes only the jus auxiliandi, but deprived them of the right of making legislative or other proposals either to the senate or to the comitia without having previously obtained the sanction of the Senate. But this arrangement did not last, for Pompeius restored them to their former rights. Smith, Dict. Ant. p. 990, v. Tribunis.
2 Caius Gracchus had procured a law to be passed, that the Roman knights should be the judges; and they acted as such for forty years. After his victory over Marius, Sulla made a law that the judges should be selected from the senate. This arrangement had lasted ten years with the effect mentioned here by Cicero; and Aurelius Cotta was at this time proposing a law that the judges should be taken from the senators, knights, and tribuni aerarii, jointly.
M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge. London. George Bell & Sons. 1903.
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