Page:Correspondence of Marcus Cornelius Fronto volume 1 Haines 1919.djvu/349

 known to another friend and rendered intimate with him. Then the custom gradually grew up of giving such recommendations in the case of those persons even who were parties to a public or private trial, provided however that the case was not a flagrant one, to the actual judges or their assessors on the bench: not, I take it, to undermine the fairness of the judge or to lead him aside from giving true judgment. But as there had long established itself in the very courts of law this custom of bringing forward, when the case had been heard out, witnesses to character to give in all honesty their own private opinion of the defendant, so these commendatory letters seemed to discharge the function of a testimony to character.

2. Wherefore this preface going back so far? That you may not think that I have had but scant regard for your dignity and authority in recommending Sulpicius Cornelianus, a most intimate friend of mine, who is very shortly to plead his case before you. But as I have said, following a long-established precedent, I venture to speak in praise of my friend before you.

3. The man is hard-working, energetic, of a free and free-handed nature, a true patriot, relying on his innocence rather than presuming on it, to me a most congenial friend from his devotion to literature and his taste in the liberal arts

4  Nor did this close relationship between us arise casually or by chance,  285

