Res Gestae

But now it is possible to see in all the regions of the Orient powerful and rapacious classes of men flitting from one forum to another, besieging the home

Among these the first class consists of those who, by sowing the seeds of all sorts of quarrels, busy themselves with thousands of recognisances, wearing out the doors of widows and the thresholds of childless men; and if they have found even slight retreats[*](For receptacula, cf. xxviii. 1, 48.) of secret enmity, they rouse deadly hatred among discordant friends, kinsfolk, or relatives. And in these men their vices do not cool down in course of time, as do those of others, but grow stronger and stronger. Poor amid insatiable robbery, they draw the dagger[*](Called by Wagner insipida translatio. ) of their talent to lead astray by crafty speeches the good faith of the judges, whose title is derived from justice.

By their persistence rashness tries to pass itself off as freedom of speech; and reckless audacity as firmness of purpose; a kind of empty flow of words as eloquence. By the perversity of these arts, as Cicero insists, it is a sin for the conscientiousness of a judge[*](Cf. Quint. iv. 1, 9, iudex religiosus. ) to be deceived. For he says: And since nothing in a state ought to be so free from corruption as the suffrage and judicial decisions, I do not understand why one who corrupts them by money deserves punishment, while one who corrupts them by his eloquence is even praised. For my part, I think that he does more evil who corrupts a judge by a speech than one who does so by money; for no one can corrupt a sensible man by money, but he can do so by words.[*](De Re Pub. v. 11, preserved by Ammianus.)

A second class consists of those who profess a knowledge of law, which, however, the self-contradictory statutes have destroyed, and reticent

In order to seem to have a deeper knowledge of the law, they talk of Trebatius,[*](Horace, Serm. ii. 1; Cicero, Ad Fam. vii. 5, 8, 17.) Cascellius,[*](Of the time of the first triumvirate; cf. Val. Max., vi. 2, 12; Hor., A.P. 371.) and Alfenus,[*](Alfenus Varus, cf. Hor., Serm. i. 3, 130.) and of the laws of the Aurunci and Sicani,[*](Typical of antiquity; cf. Virg., Aen. viii. 51 ff.; Hor., Serm. i. 3, 91; Gell. i. 10, 1, 2.) which were long since forgotten and buried many ages ago along with Evander’s mother.[*](A humorous superlative of antiquus. Evander is typical of antiquity (Hor., Serm. i. 3, 91; etc.), and his mother carries us back a generation.) And if you pretend that you have purposely murdered your mother, they promise, if they have observed that you are a moneyed man,[*](Cf. xiv. 6, 12, note 3; Cic., Agr., ii. 22, 59.) that their many recondite studies will secure an acquittal for you.

A third group consists of those who, in order to gain glory by their troublous profession, sharpen their venal tongues[*](Cf. ingenium procudere, xv. 2, 8; procudere linguas, xxxi. 16, 9.) to attack the truth, and with shameless brow and base yelping often gain entrance wherever they wish. When the anxious judges are distracted by many cares, they tie up the business in an inexplicable tangle, and do their best to involve all peace and quiet in lawsuits and purposely by knotty inquisitions they deceive the courts, which, when their procedure is right, are temples of justice, when corrupted, are deceptive and hidden pits: and if anyone is deluded and falls into those pits, he will not get out except after many a term of years, when he has been sucked dry to his very marrow.

The fourth and last class, shameless, headstrong, and ignorant, consists of those who have broken away too soon from the elementary schools, run to and fro through the corners of the cities, thinking out mimiambic lines,[*](By mimiambi are meant either farces or songs written in iambics. See Pliny, Epist. vi. 21, 4; Gell. xx. 9, 1 ff.) rather than speeches suitable to win law-suits, wearing out the doors of the rich, and hunting for banquets and fine choice food.