Note 1053 — Chapter IV · THE MAGISTRACY (continued 2)

Sexagenarius de ponte. Cf. Cic. pro Rosc. Amer. 35, 100 “Habeo etiam dicere, quem contra morem majorum, minorem annis LX de ponte in Tiberim dejecerit”; Festus p. 334 “quo tempore primum per pontem coeperunt comitiis suffragium ferre, juniores conclamaverunt ut de ponte dejicerentur sexagenari, qui jam nullo publico munere fungerentur, ut ipsi potius sibi quam illi deligerent imperatorem.” If pons could be taken literally, a curious parallel is furnished by early Slavonic procedure. “The vechés passed whole days in debating the same subjects, the only interruptions being free fights in the streets. At Novgorod these fights took place on the bridge across the Volchov, and the stronger party sometimes threw their adversaries into the river beneath” (Kovalevsky Modern Customs and Ancient Laws of Russia, p. 138).