[35]
The most
effective of all such methods was in times past that
by which more than anything else Cicero is considered to have saved Lucius Murena1 from the
attacks of his accusers, who were men of the greatest
distinction. For he persuaded the court that nothing
was more necessary in view of the critical position
of affairs than that Murena should assume the consulship on the thirty-first of December. This form of
appeal is now, however, almost entirely obsolete,
since the safety of the state is to-day dependent on
the watchful care of a single ruler, and cannot conceivably be imperilled by the result of a trial.
1 pro Mur. xxxvii. 79.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1921.
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