Note 230 — LIFE OF POMPEIUS.

A Cornelia Lex, passed in the time of Sulla, made the Judices in the Judicia Publica eligible only out of the body of Senators. That the Senators had acted corruptly in the administration of justice, we have the authority of Cicero in one of his Verrine orations (In Verr. A 1, 13 and 16). The measure for restoring the Equites to a share in the judicial functions was proposed by the prætor L. Aurelius Cotta, the uncle of C. Julius Cæsar, with the approbation of Pompeius and Cæsar, who were now acting in concert. The charges of corruption which Cotta made against the Senate are recorded by Cicero (In Verr. iii. 96). The proposed law (rogatio), which was carried, made the Judices eligible out of the Senators, Equites, and Tribuni Ærarii, which three classes are mentioned by Cicero (Ad Atticum, i. 16) as represented by the Judices who sat on the trial of Clodius. The purity of the administration of justice was not hereby improved. Cicero, on the occasion of the trial of Clodius, speaks of all these classes having their dishonest representatives among the judices.