JUVENAL, SATIRE VII
105"O but historians are a lazy crew, that delight in lounging and the shade." Tell me then what do pleaders get for their services in the courts, and for those huge bundles of papers which they bring with them? They talk big enough, especially if a creditor[1] of their own happens to be listening; or if, more urgent still, they get poked in the ribs by one who has brought a huge ledger to claim a doubtful debt. Then indeed do their capacious bellows pant forth prodigious lies! Then are their breasts be-slobbered![2] and yet, if you want to discover their real gains, you may put on one side the fortunes of a hundred lawyers, on the other that of a single jockey of the Red![3] The great men are seated; you rise, a pale-faced Ajax,[4] to declaim before a bumpkin judge in a case of contested liberty. Strain your lungs, poor fool, until they burst, that when exhausted by your labours some green palm-branches may be put up to adorn your garret.[5] What fee will your voice bring in? A dried-up ham[6]; a jar of sprats; some veteran onions which would serve as rations for a Moor, or five flagons of wine that has sailed down the Tiber.[7] If you have pled on four occasions, and been lucky enough to get a gold piece, a bit of it, as part of the compact, will go to the attorney. Aemilius will get the maximum legal fee,[8] though he did not plead so well as we did; but then he has a bronze chariot in his forecourt, with four stately steeds, and an effigy
- ↑ The creditor is one to whom the advocate owes money, and before whom he wishes to make a good appearance; the acrior illo is a litigant whom the advocate hopes to secure as a client.
- ↑ Spitting or slobbering on the breast was considered lucky to obviate the evil results of boasting.
- ↑ Lacerta is apparently the name of a charioteer.
- ↑ Alluding to the contest between Ajax and Achilles for the arms of Achilles.
- ↑ The advocate who had won a case would have his stair decorated.
- ↑ Lawyers received presents in kind from their country clients.
- ↑ i.e. poor wine; like the vile Sabinum of Hor. Od. I. xx. 1.
- ↑ Aemilius was a noble; the Lex Cincia (B.C. 204) placed a limit upon lawyers' fees.
