But if I had this cause so deserving, so illustrious, and so important; if either the
 Sicilians had not demanded this of me, or I had not had such an intimate connection with
 the Sicilians; and if I were to profess that what I am doing I am doing for the sake of
 the republic, in order that a man endowed with unprecedented covetousness, audacity, and
 wickedness,—whose thefts and crimes we have known to be most enormous and most infamous,
 not in Sicily alone, but in Achaia , in Asia , in Cilicia , in Pamphylia , and even at Rome , before the eyes of all men,—should be brought to trial by my
 instrumentality, still, who would there be who could find fault with my act or my
 intention? What is there, in the name of gods and men! by which I can at the present moment confer
 a greater benefit on the republic? What is there which either ought to be more pleasing
 to the Roman people, or which can be more desirable in the eves of the allies and of
 foreign nations, or more adapted to secure the safety and fortunes of all men? The
 provinces depopulated, harassed, and utterly overturned; the allies and tributaries of
 the Roman people afflicted and miserable, are seeking now not for any hope of safety,
 but for comfort in their destruction. They who wish the administration of justice still to remain in the hands of the
 senatorial body, complain that they cannot procure proper accusers; those who are able
 to act as accusers, complain of the want of impartiality in the decisions. In the
 meantime the Roman people, although it suffers under many disadvantages and
 difficulties, yet desires nothing in the republic so much as the restoration of the
 ancient authority and importance to the courts of law. It is from a regret at the state
 of our courts of law that the restoration of the power of the tribunes Sulla in his reform of the constitution on the early aristocratic
 principles, left to the tribunes only the jus
 auxiliandi , but deprived them of the right of making legislative or other
 proposals either to the senate or to the comitia without having previously obtained
 the sanction of the Senate. But this arrangement did not last, for Pompeius restored
 them to their former rights. Smith, Dict. Ant. p. 990, v. Tribunis . is so eagerly demanded again. It is in consequence of
 the uncertainty of the courts of law, that another class Caius
 Gracchus had procured a law to be passed, that the Roman knights should be the judges;
 and they acted as such for forty years. After his victory over Marius, Sulla made a
 law that the judges should be selected from the senate. This arrangement had lasted
 ten years with the effect mentioned here by Cicero; and Aurelius Cotta was at this
 time proposing a law that the judges should be taken from the senators, knights, and
 tribuni aerarii , jointly. is demanded to
 determine law-suits; owing to the crimes and infamy of the judges, even the office of
 censor, which formerly was used to be accounted too severe by the people, is now again
 demanded, and has become popular and praiseworthy. In a time of such licentiousness on the part of the wicked, of daily complaint on the
 part of the Roman people, of dishonour in the courts of law, of unpopularity of the
 whole senate, as I thought that this was the only remedy for these numerous evils, for
 men who were both capable and upright to undertake the cause of the republic and the
 laws, I confess that I, for the sake of promoting the universal safety, devoted myself
 to upholding that part of the republic which was in the greatest danger. Now that I have shown the motives by which I was influenced to undertake the cause, I
 must necessarily speak of our contention, that, in appointing an accuser, you may have
 some certain line of conduct to follow. I understand the matter thus, O judges:—when any
 man is accused of extortion, if there be a contest between any parties as to who may
 best be entrusted with the prosecution, these two points ought to be regarded most
 especially; first, whom they, to whom the injury is said to have been done, wish most to
 be their counsel; and secondly, whom he, who is accused of having done those injuries,
 would least wish to be so.