Reforms intro

peius.

The methods which the consul devised to protect the political tribunals from undue influence were frivolous in the extreme. The selection which he is said to have duced by Pom- made from the three privileged orders of the persons who might be chosen by lot to exercise the functions of judges may have purified the bench from the neediest and most openly profligate of its members; but the vices of venality and partiality were common to the noblest and the most abject, and it was not by merely removing the scum from the surface that the fountains of justice could be really cleansed. The limitation of the number of advocates, and the restriction of the speech of the accuser to two and of the defendant to three hours, were trifling reforms in procedure; but the latter at least deserves notice from the importance subsequently attached to it as forming an epoch in the eloquence of the bar;' and it may undoubtedly be regarded as a symptom of the desire of wise and thoughtful men to diminish the undue weight of rhetorical appeals to the passions. It had been moreover a common artifice to overawe the judges by bringing forward the testimonies and protestations of distinguished men in favour of the accused. A letter of Cæsar or Pompeius expressing his regard for the culprit, his assurance of his innocence and wishes for his success, might be read in open court with no little effect upon the interested parties in whose hands the decision lay. This

1 Auctor de Caus. Corr. Eloq. 38. Cicero himself seems to have thought the restriction reasonable and convenient (Brut. 94.).

2 Asconius in his Commentary on Cicero's pleading for Scaurus (a. u. 700) cites, apparently from the documents of the trial, the names of the personages who used their influence in this way: "Laudaverunt Scaurum consulares novem, L. Piso, L. Volcatius, Q. Metellus Nepos, M. Perperna, L. Philippus, M. Cicero, Q. Hortensius, P. Servilius Isauricus pater, Cn. Pompeius Magnus. Horum magna pars per tabellas laudaverunt qui aberant, inter quos Pompeius quoque; nam quod erat pro consule, extra urbem morabatur. Unus præterea adolescens laudavit, frater ejus, Faustus Cornelius, Sullæ filius. Is in laudatione multa humiliter et cum lacrymis locutus non minus audientes permovit, quam Scaurus ipse permoverat. Ad genua judicum, cum sententiæ ferrentur, bifariam se diviserunt qui pro eo rogabant: ab uno latere Scaurus ipse, et M'. Glabrio, sororis filius, et Paulus, et P. Lentulus, Lentuli Nigri Flaminis filius,

was another instrument in the machinery of corruption which the consul considered a fitting object of his specious reforms. But trifling as these matters were in themselves, they combined to assist in breaking down the rude independence of the judicial system, in which the judges and the advocates had played into each other's hands, in defiance both of the government and of popular clamour. Notwithstanding the partial reforms which had been effected since the time of Sulla, the quæstiones perpetuæ were still the stronghold of aristocratic monopoly. Every attempt, however superficial, to amend them, contributed to reveal the unfairness of their operation. Degraded in the public estimation, they lost their ancient hold on the feelings of the citizens, and the intrusion of armed soldiers at Milo's trial, though adapted only to the convenience of the moment, and with no ulterior designs, was in fact a significant intimation that the ascendency of the nobles had fallen for ever under the military domination of generals and dictators.

His conduct at

affairs.

It is not to be supposed that Pompeius was acting in these proceedings with far-sighted treachery towards the party with whose interests he had connected himself. He considered his own exalted position to rest mainly the head of upon public opinion, and, in the discharge of his functions as state reformer, his object was to maintain the influence of the senate, as the inveterate enemy of his own rival Cæsar, just so far as he could do so without sacrificing his own popularity. He would have been content with the praise due to the specious palliatives which he had devised for long-condemned abuses, and neither aspired nor expected to lay the foundations of a new political system. He persuaded his friends that the desertion of Milo, of whose popularity with his party and unreserved devotion to them he was jealous, was a necessary sacrifice to appearances.' But having

et L. Æmilius Buca filius et C. Memmius, Fausta natus, supplicaverunt; ex altera parte Sulla Faustus frater Scauri, et T. Annius Milo, et T. Peducæus, et C. Cato, et M. Octavius Lenas Curtianus."

1 Pompeius pretended to believe that Milo had plotted against his life.

made this specious concession to the demands of outraged law, the consul was anxious to exhibit the impartiality of his justice, and now encouraged proceedings against the friends of Clodius who were implicated in the disturbance.' Even among the nobles indeed Milo had made many enemies; the historian Sallustius resented a private affront, and had been one of the loudest in clamouring for his condemnation." He had kept clear, however, of any act which could involve him in the guilt of sedition. Sextus Clodius, less prudent or less fortunate, was accused and condemned for the breach of the public peace; and, as soon as their year of office expired, the tribunes Pompeius Rufus and Munatius Plancus, both highly connected and adherents of the senate, were brought nevertheless to the bar of justice. The reformer took no step to avert the punishment of the first of these; but for the other he condescended to write a letter to be read before the judges, thus using his influence precisely in the way which his own enactments expressly forbade. This indecorous proceeding gave deep offence. It was a manifest breach of the law as well as a gross act of partiality. Cato denounced it with all the weight of his blameless reputation.* The accused thereupon excepted against him as one of his judges; but though his challenge was admitted, he was notwithstanding condemned by a majority of voices. In this suddenly awakened zeal for purity and fair play, the criminals who excepted against Cato were generally condemned, so strong a presumption of guilt did it seem to shrink from the sentence of a judge whose integrity stood so high in public estimation. The year of

3

5

Ascon. in Milon. 67.: Vell. ii. 47. : "Milonem reum non magis invidia facti quam Pompeii damnavit voluntas."

1

Dion, xl. 55. : διὰ τὴν τοῦ βουλευτηρίου ἔμπρησιν.

2 Ascon. in Milon. Gellius (xvii. 18.), on the authority of Varro, tells the story of Sallust having been discovered by Milo in adultery with his wife, and severely chastised.

3

Dion, xl. 52. 55.; Plut. Pomp. 55.

4 Val. Max. vi. 2. 5.: "Huic facto persona admirationem ademit: nam

quæ in alio audacia videretur in Catone fiducia cognoscitur."

5 Plut. l. c., Cat. Min. 48.; Dion, l. c.

Pompeius's consulship was distinguished by the multitude of cases in which the conduct of men of all shades of political opinion was submitted to judicial scrutiny. He passed a law to compel the prosecution of all the charges of bribery with which the various candidates for office since the year 699 had been menaced. A curious provision was adopted to stimu late the flagging zeal of the accusers. The culprit who was suffering himself under conviction for a similar crime might obtain remission of his own penalty by conducting to a successful issue a charge against another.'

It seems, however, that the alliance of Pompeius with the senate, and the alienation from Cæsar which all his proceedings attested, gave new life and strength to the His adminis functions of government. Not only did the tration pro

duces salutary

consul arm himself to enforce the execution of effects. the laws, but he provided by a salutary measure against their violation in forbidding the citizens to carry weapons within the walls. The riddance which had been made both of Milo and Clodius, together with many of their noisiest adherents, freed the forum from the tumultuary bands by which public business had been so long impeded. The tribunes learned to be more cautious in their opposition, and the people, no longer caressed or menaced by rival demagogues, became good-humoured and manageable. Such was the early promise of the military tyranny which the consul and senate had virtually introduced into the city. The consul's success was ob

1 1 Plut. Cat. Min. 48. This was the year of Pompeius's second consulship. Appian (B. C. ii. 23.) makes the retrospective operation of this act extend to his first consulship in 684. Cæsar's friends are said to have complained of the indignity of bringing their patron's consulship (695) within the period thus stigmatized for its corruption, and possibly the limit was contracted on this account. Hoeck, Römische Geschichte, i. 149.

This privilege continued under the emperors, and tended to multiply the number of delators. Tac. Ann. vi. 7.: "Sed Minucius et Servæus damnati indicibus accessere."

3 Plin. H. N. xxxiv. 39. If the words are to be taken literally, he forbade even the keeping of arms: "Magni Pompeii in tertio consulatu exstat edictum, in tumultu necis Clodianæ, prohibentis ullum telum esse in urbe."

tained by favour perhaps not less than by the display of force. The commission he had received for provisioning the city gave him the opportunity and the means of distributing grain to the populace. This usage, which had originated in the legislation of C. Gracchus,' had been turned to the maintenance of the senatorial ascendency by the astute policy of Cato. Under his direction it had served to soothe the irritation of the people on the defeat of the Catilinarians. Fatal as it eventually proved to their liberties, and even to their prosperity, it conciliated them at the time to the governments which fed them, and became a shield in the hands of the oligarchy against the attacks of demagogues, which they could not refrain from using, notwithstanding the warnings of Cicero and the more far-sighted of their statesmen."

Pompeius, dis

satisfied with his position,

courts the alli

ance of the oligarchy.

Nevertheless, Pompeius was not unconscious of the hollow and unsubstantial nature of the reforms he had devised. The permanence of the little good he had effected could only be assured by the military power on which it was really based. A few months must reveal the imposture, and the termination of his extraordinary office would be hailed as the dethronement of a tyrant. Great as were his abilities in the conduct of affairs, and free as he was from the passions which so frequently cloud the judgment of statesmen, untramelled by avarice or sensuality, with few personal hatreds or partialities, nevertheless his character exerted no ascendency over others. Always artful, he had no ingenuity in concealing his artifice. He was suspected by all men, and he could impose upon none. His moral nature was as repulsive to those who came in contact with him as that of his great rival was attractive. He felt that his sole consulship was after all a failure, and he hastened to throw off the responsibility of ineffectual power. Upon the dissolution of his connexion with Cæsar by the

1 Cic. pro Sest. 48.

2 Plut. Cat. Min. 26.; see Hoeck, R. G. i. 112.

3 Cic. l. C., ad Att. i. 16.: "Illa concionalis hirudo ærarii misera ac jejuna plebecula."