shown you the way into that stronghold which the Nobility has held with its garrison and fortified with every device; you have breached the defences of that stronghold, and have willed that they should lie open to merit in the future."
The professional rivalry between Cicero and Hortensius at the bar was sharpened by the circumstance that the one represented the "new men" and the other the ruling Nobility. The one naturally led the assault and the other defended the barriers of political and social exclusiveness which Cicero had resolved to pass. We may catch a glimpse of the situation in a passage[1] where the younger advocate challenges the behaviour of the high society of Rome, tolerant to the mis-doings of those within the charmed circle, cold and rigid towards all outsiders-"Is it not intolerable, Hortensius, to see that your friendship and that of the rest of the great and noble allows an easier approach to the wickedness and effrontery of Verres, than to the virtue and incorruptibility of any one of us. You detest the industry of 'new men,' you look down on their frugal life, you think scorn of their purity, and for their genius and their manliness you wish it stifled and crushed out. Verres is your favourite."
The survivors of the Marian party were of course bitterly opposed to the constitution set up by the conqueror; but they had exhausted themselves 78 B.C.in an abortive attempt at revolution under the conduct of Lepidus immediately after Sulla's death. They gathered around Crassus,- ↑ In Verr., iii., 4, 7.
