[34]
They will be able for five years to sit in
judgment on the consuls, or even on the tribunes of the people themselves; but all that time
no one will be able to sit in judgment on them. They will be allowed to fill magisterial
offices; but they will not be allowed to be prosecuted. They will have power to purchase
lands, from whomsoever they choose, whatever they choose, and at whatever price they choose.
They are allowed to establish new colonies, to recruit old ones, to fill all Italy with their colonists; they have absolute authority for
visiting every province, for depriving free people of their lands, for giving or taking away
kingdoms, whenever they please. They may be at Rome
when it is convenient to them; but they have a right also to wander about wherever they like
with supreme command, and with a power of sitting in judgment on everything. They are allowed
to put an end to all criminal trials; to remove from the tribunals whoever they think fit; to
decide by themselves on the most important matters; to delegate their power to a quaestor; to
send about surveyors; and to ratify whatever the surveyor has reported to that single
decemvir by whom he has been sent.
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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