ONE I HAVE PARDONED FOR HIS HIGH POSITION, ANOTHER FOR HIS HUMBLE STATE
2. HOW FEW PERSECUTORS
There is one kind of men that ought to be cleansed of all vice, that is, those who are in charge of morals, and correct the vices of others. Yet the men of this class are, as judges, most unfair toward us, and fair toward
themselves; and I know not how it comes about that what they permit grudgingly or not at all to others, they readily indulge in themselves.
Seneca, On Anger [2.28.8]: We have other men’s vices before our eyes, and our own behind our backs... [A man] disapproves of the least sign of luxury in another, although he has denied himself nothing. A tyrant is angry with a homicide, and a despoiler of temples punishes thefts. A great part of mankind is not angry with sins, but with sinners. There he also alludes to Aesop’s bag. Seneca the Tragedian in his Agamemnon [269272]:
Not known to you are the laws, by no means new, of kingdoms: / Judges ill-disposed to us, but fair to themselves./ This they think the greatest surety of kingship,/ That they alone may do, what others may not. Juvenal [Sat., 8.171175]:
… Send your Legate to Ostia,
O Caesar, but search for him in some big cook shop!
There you will find him, lying cheek-by-jowl beside a cutthroat.
In the company of sailors, thieves, and runaway slaves, Beside hangmen…
And a little later [8.181f]:
But you gentlemen of Trojan blood find excuses for yourselves;
What would disgrace a handicraftsman [cerdo] sits gracefully on a Volesus or a Brutus!
Now since there were many kinds of quaestors (prosecutors) among the Romans: here understand prosecutors of capital offenses, who, being also the prosecutors of parricide, are in charge of dealing with criminal cases. So Asconius testifies in his Commentary on Contra Verrem, and Servius on the Aeneid [6.432]. Some writers of no mean erudition confuse them; yet I think the distinction is clear. Let us first look at prosecutors of parricide, the ancient origin of which office is attested by Fenestella and the
Jurisconsult Pomponius [Dig. Just., 1.2.23]. Varro, De Lingua Latina [5.81], speaks of these same magistrates and asserts that the capital triumvirs took their place. Fenestella and Pomponius add that they were customarily appointed by the people; for without the people’s command it was not permitted to take action against a Roman citizen. We therefore maintain that magistrates of this sort were ordinary, and created by the people. Their powers were afterwards transferred to the triumvirs. The quaestor (prosecutor), however, mentioned by Asconius, called by Cicero both quaesitor and judge of the criminal court, is understood to be the urban praetor, who received the responsibility for all public courts of
justice through the same lot by which he drew the praetorship of the city.
Cicero, Contra Verrem [1.8.21]: But lo! on the very days when it fell to the share of Marcus Metellus to preside over trials concerning extortion, information is given me that that fellow was receiving such
congratulations, that he also sent servants home to announce it to his wife.
Then he adds [1.9.29]: Well, then, he will have the two consuls and the quaestor [president of the court], exactly according to his wish. Plutarch states [Cic., 9.1f] that Licinius Macer was charged with embezzlement before Cicero as praetor, and condemned by the unanimous vote of the judges. Thus, among writers the term “praetor,” is often used for
“quaestor.” Cicero, Contra Verrem [1.3.10]: For what reason he is
confident to accomplish anything with this Glabrio as praetor and with this scheme, I cannot understand. Juvenal [Sat., 13.24]:
… The first punishment is this:
That no guilty man is acquitted at the bar of his own conscience, Even though the corrupt favor of a deceitful praetor may have
acquitted him in court.
Asconius’ Commentary on Cicero’s Pro Scauro: He was arraigned before Marcus Cato the judge (praetor) in charge of extortion cases, as it has been written down in the records. Also in the Pro Cornelio: Q. Gallus the praetor exercised that judgment. It is also to be added that, when a case was to be decided outside of regular procedure, quaestors were created by popular vote for this, as Genesis Domitius Ahenobarbus was created by the comifia in the case of Milo, when the charge of homicide was dealt with outside the normal procedure.
BE CONDEMNED UNDER THE SAME LAW CITED FOR THE PROSECUTION
We say that a man who has been convicted of treason, of adultery, or parricide, or of one of the offenses under the Cornelian law, is investigated under the Julian Law of Treason, the Julian Law of Adultery, the
Cornelian Law of Assassination, the Pompeian Law of Parricide, and the like, and condemned by these same laws.
HOW FEW ACCUSERS ARE FREE FROM BLAME Cicero, Contra Verrem [2.3.1]: every man, O judges, who, without being prompted by any enmity, or stung by any private injury, or tempted by any reward, prosecutes another for the good of the republic, ought to consider, not only how great a burden he is taking upon himself at the time, but also how much trouble he is courting for the remainder of his life. For he imposes on himself a law of innocence, of moderation, and of all virtues, who demands from another an account of his life… Ibid. [2.3.2.4]: In short, everything which you have impeached in another must be earnestly avoided by you yourself. In truth, not only no accuser, but no reprover even can be endured, who is himself detected in the vice which he reproves in another. If therefore the accuser and judge fall into the same crimes which the one indicts for punishment, the other inflicts with punishment, what is to be hoped from other people?