[21]
Similarly, it may be shown that
charges are hasty, insidious or vindictive. The
strongest argument, however, which can be brought
against a charge is that it involves peril to the
community or to the judges themselves; we find an
example of the former in the pro Tullio,1 where
Cicero says “Who ever laid down such a principle as
this, or who could be allowed, without grave peril
to the community, to kill a man, just because he
asserts that he feared that he himself might be
[p. 325]
killed by him?” An instance of the latter occurs
in the pro Oppio, where Cicero warns the judges at
some length not to permit such an action to be
brought against the equestrian order.2
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1921.
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