Note 7 — Chapter I

The Cincian law, of which I shall have to speak again, forbade Roman advocates to take any payment for their services. Cicero expressly declares that he has always obeyed that law. He accused others of disobeying it, as, for instance, Hortensius. But no contemporary has accused him. Mr. Collins refers to some books which had been given to Cicero by his friend Pœtus. They are mentioned in a letter to Atticus, lib. i., 20; and Cicero, joking, says that he has consulted Cincius—perhaps some descendant of him who made the law 145 years before—as to the legality of accepting the present. But we have no reason for supposing that he had ever acted as an advocate for Pœtus.