quinquaginta,i.e. from the law of Caius Gracchus, B.C. 123, to that of Sulla, B.C. 80. ne tenuissima quidem suspicio:one of the exaggerations of the advocate. If the courts were really worse in B.C. 70 than they had been in 90, it was simply because the times were worse. sublata,taken away. populi Romani,etc., i.e. the ability of the people to hold in check the senatorial order by means of the tribunician power suspended by Sulla (see note on p. 43, l. 32). Q. Calidius:praetor B.C. 79; condemned for extortion in Spain. It seems that Calidius, being condemned de repetundis, with bitter irony assailed the bribed jurors on account of the smallness of the bribe for which he was condemned, saying that it was not respectable (honestum) to condemn an ex-praetor for so small a sum. The allusion shows that the corruption was notorious and universal. HS triciens:3,000,000 sestertii = $150,000 (nearly); § 634 (379); G. p. 493; H. 757 (647, iv, I); H.-B. 675, 2. praetorium:an ex-magistrate kept the rank of the highest office he had held,—as consularis, praetorius, aedilicius. P. Septimio (Scaevola), condemned B.C. 72; the damages were increased because of his connection with the odious consilium Junianum (sect. 29). The amount extorted was estimated in a separate process (litis aestimatio), and in this case the money taken in bribery was included in the reckoning.
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Select Orations of. Cicero. Allen and Greenough's Edition. Revised by J. B. Greenough and G. L. Kittredge, with a special vocabulary by J. B. Greenough.
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