M. CORNELIUS FRONTO
it; in that neither before his exile had he paid in all the money for his senatorship nor any since. When all this had been argued out in the lengthiest of proceedings, Lollius Urbicus,[1] after examining the case, made no decree against Volumnius; but in place of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . reckoned in proportion to the honour, I do not see . . . . . . . . . . . .
What again of the similar decision of our Emperors[2] in the case of Isidorus Lysias?[† 1] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . is branded with indelible infamy[† 2] . . . .
The disgrace is not the same for a single man to receive the stigma of ignominy, as is the disgrace for a house full of children and grandchildren to be stained with infamy, for this bespattering with infamy defiles and disgraces many at once. Just as the loss is not the same in wars if a single horseman be cut down or a trireme be rammed[† 3] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6. Many laws[3] have fixed a penalty for cutting down "happy" trees.[4] What is this happiness of a tree? Is it not flourishing and fruit-bearing branches laden with berries and fruit? No one ever called a reed, however tall, no one ever called a bamboo happy. Is it more right that fruits and berries should count as an honour and safeguard for trees than children and grandchildren for men? . . . .
- ↑ He was praef. urb. in 152 and following years, when this case would have come before him. We know that he condemned certain Christians, named Ptolemaeus and Lucius, to death (Justin, Apol. ii. §§ 1 and 2). He was also governor of Britain, defeated the Brigantes, a Yorkshire tribe, and completed the Wall of Antoninus between the Forth and the Clyde. See Corp. Inscr. Lat. x. 419 (Add.).
- ↑ Marcus and Verus. Nothing further is known of the case of Lysias.
- ↑ Digest, xlvii. 7, 2; Gaius, iv. 2, etc.
- ↑ Felices arbores Cato dixit quae fructum ferunt, Paul, ex Fest. p. 92.
