[94]
Even if you were not aware that this body excelled all others in dignity, were you
not at least aware of this, that it furnished the judges? Previously, when the
equestrian order furnished the judges, infamous and rapacious magistrates in the
provinces were subservient to the farmers; they honoured all who were in their
employ; every Roman knight whom they saw in the province they pursued with
attentions and courtesies; and that conduct was not so advantageous to the guilty,
as it was a hindrance to many if they had acted in any respect contrary to the
advantage or inclination of that body. This sort of principle was somehow or other
diligently reserved among them as if by common consent, that whoever had thought any
Roman knight deserving of any affront, was to be considered by their whole order as
deserving of every possible misfortune.
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M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge. London. George Bell & Sons. 1903.
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