Can no means be found, O Caius Aquillius,
 for a man's arriving at his rights as expeditiously as maybe without the disgrace and
 infamy and ruin of any one else? Forsooth, if anything were owed, he would ask for it:
 he would not prefer that all sorts of trials should take place, rather than that one
 from which all these arise. He, who for so many years never even asked Quinctius for the
 money, when he had an opportunity of transacting business with him every day; he who,
 from the time when he first began to behave ill, has wasted all the time in adjournments
 and respiting the recognizances; he who, after he had withdrawn his recognizance drove
 Quinctius by treachery and violence from their joint estate; who, when he had ample
 opportunity, without any one's making objection, to try a civil action, With respect to its subject matter the actio was divided into two great divisions, the in
 personam actio and the in rem actio . The
 former was against a person who was bound to the plaintiff by contract or delict the
 latter applied to those cases where a man claimed a property or a right. Smith, Dict.
 Ant. p.7. chose rather a charge that involved infamy; who, when he is brought
 back to this tribunal, whence all these proceedings arise, repudiates the most
 reasonable proposals; confesses that he is aiming, not at the money, but at the life and
 heart's blood of his adversary;—does he not openly say, “if anything
 were owing to me, I should demand it, and I should long ago have obtained it; I would not employ so much trouble, so unpopular a course of
 legal proceeding, and such a band of favourers of my cause, if I had to make a just
 demand; I have got to extort money from one unwilling, and in spite of him; I have got
 to tear and squeeze out of a man what he does not owe; Publius Quinctius is to be cast
 down from all his fortune; every one who is powerful, or eloquent, or noble, must be
 brought into court with me; a force must be put upon truth, threats must be bandied
 about, dangers must be threatened; terrors must be brandished before his eyes, that
 being cowed and overcome by these things, he may at last yield of his own
 accord.” And, in truth, all these things, when I see who are striving against
 us, and when I consider the party sitting opposite to me, seem to be impending over, and
 to be present to us, and to be impossible to be avoided by any means. But when, O Caius
 Aquillius, I bring my eyes and my mind back to you, the greater the labour and zeal with
 which all these things are done, the more trifling and powerless do I think them.
 Quinctius then owed nothing, as you prove yourself. 
 But what if he had owed you anything? would that have at once been a reason for your
 requiring leave from the praetor to take possession of his goods? I think that was
 neither according to law, nor expedient for any one. What then does he prove? He says
 that he had forfeited his recognizances. Before I prove that he had not done so, I choose, O Caius Aquillius, to consider both
 the fact itself and the conduct of Sextus Naevius, with reference to the principles of
 plain duty, and the common usages of men. He, as you say, had not appeared to his
 recognizances; he with whom you were connected by relationship, by partnership, by every
 sort of bond and ancient intimacy. Was it decent for you to go at once to the praetor?
 was it fair for you at once to demand to be allowed to take possession of his goods
 according to the edict? Did you betake yourself to these extreme measures and to these
 most hostile laws with such eagerness as to leave yourself nothing behind which you
 might be able to do still more bitter and cruel? For,
 what could happen more shameful to any human being, what more miserable or more bitter
 to a man; what disgrace could happen so heavy, what disaster can be imagined so
 intolerable? If fortune deprived any one of money, or if the injustice of another took
 it from him, still while his reputation is unimpeached, honour easily makes amends for
 poverty. And some men, though stained with ignominy, or convicted in discreditable
 trials, still enjoy their wealth; are not forced to dance attendance (which is the most
 wretched of all states) on the power of another; and in their distresses they are
 relieved by this support and comfort; but he whose goods have been sold, who has seen
 not merely his ample estates, but even his necessary food and clothing put up under the
 hammer, with great disgrace to himself; he is not only erased from the list of men, but
 he is removed out of sight, if possible, even beneath the dead. An honourable Most of the commentators consider this passage corrupt, and propose
 various emendations of it. I have however thought it safer to adhere to the text of
 the MSS. as it stands in Orellius. death forsooth often sets off even a base
 life, but a dishonoured life leaves no room to hope for even an honourable death.
 Therefore, in truth, when a man's goods are taken
 possession of according to the praetor's edict, all his fame and reputation is seized at
 the same time with his goods. A man about whom placards are posted in the most
 frequented places, is not allowed even to perish in silence and obscurity; a man who has
 assignees and trustees appointed to pronounce to him on what terms and conditions he is
 to be ruined; a man about whom the voice of the crier makes proclamation and proclaims
 his price,—he has a most bitter funeral procession while he is alive, if that
 may be considered a funeral in which men meet not as friends to do honour to his
 obsequies, but purchasers of his goods as executioners, to tear to pieces and divide the
 relics of his existence.