Page:Cicero And The Fall Of The Roman Republic.djvu/79

70 B.C.] cannot trust the courts that they clamour for the tribunician power; it is because the courts are corrupt that another rank of men is demanded for the bench; it is from the iniquity and the ill-fame of the jurors that the censorship, which was once a name of dread, is now asked for, is now a popular cry and calls forth cheers of approbation."

And again —"this point did not escape that wise and eminent statesman Quintus Catulus, who when asked his opinion in the Senate by our noble and gallant consul on the question of the tribunician power, which was before the House, began his speech with these weighty words: "that the senators have handled the courts corruptly and scandalously, and that if they had been content to satisfy public opinion by their verdicts, the Roman people would not be so anxious for the tribunician power." Finally Cnæus Pompeius himself, in the first speech which he made as consul elect before the gates of the city, when he indicated (as most people expected) that he would restore the tribunician power, elicited a hum and murmur of approval from his audience; but when in the course of the same speech he said, 'the provinces are pillaged and harried, and gross and scandalous verdicts are returned; I hope to find a remedy for this state of things'; then the Roman people gave voice to its feelings no longer by indistinct utterances but by downright shouts of applause."

Cicero aided this movement by publishing the full and detailed exposition of the crimes of Verres,