those who could not bear to see the Roman Knights in the pride of place,[1] should brook the tyranny of this vile slave. Hitherto, gentlemen of the jury, this tyranny has been exercised in other spheres. Now you see what path it is shaping for itself, at what goal it aims; it aims at your honour, your oath, your verdict, that is to say, at almost all that remains sound and uncontaminated in the State. Think, that on that judgment-seat Chrysogonus believes that he will work his will, that here too he can hold sway. O the misery and the bitterness of it! It is not that I fear that he will have such power. What cuts me to the quick is that he has presumed, that he has hoped to compass, by means of such a bench as that which I see before me, the condemnation of an innocent man. That is the burden of my complaint. Was it for this that the nobility aroused itself and won back the State at the point of the sword? Was it in order that the menials and lackeys of the great should be able to harry the goods and the honour of us and you alike?"[2]
Of even greater weight are the words of warning with which the speech concludes:
"Men of wisdom, men endowed with the place and the power which you occupy, are bound to apply the appropriate remedies to the disease of which the State is sickening. There is no one of you but knows well, that the Roman people, which formerly had the reputation of being most placable towards its enemies, labours to-day under the curse
