in order that the matter might be decided as speedily as possible; and to affix
 a severe punishment, in order that audacity might be repressed by fear, and to take away that
 outlet, “Damage unjustly caused.” That which in other causes ought to have weight, and which has weight by the Aquilian law,
 namely, that damage had been caused by armed slaves in a violent manner, 
 Men must decide themselves when they could lawfully take arms, collect a band, and put men to
 death. When an action was assigned, this alone was to be the point at issue,
 “whether it appeared that damage had been inflicted by the malice of the household,
 by men collected and armed acting in a violent manner,” and the word
 “unjustly” was not to be added; he thought that he had put an end to the
 audacity of wicked men when he had left them no hope of being able to make any defence.
 Since, then, you have now heard what this judicial procedure is, and with what intention it
 was established, now listen, while I briefly explain to you the case itself, and its attendant
 circumstances. Marcus Tullius had a farm, inherited from his father, in the territory of 
					 Thurium , O judges, which he was never sorry to have, till he
 got a neighbor who preferred extending the boundaries of his estate by arms, to defending them
 by law. For Publius Fabius lately purchased a farm of Caius Claudius, a senator,—a
 farm bordering on that of Marcus Tullius,—dear enough, for nearly half as much again
 (though in a wretched state of cultivation, and with all the buildings burnt down) as Claudius
 himself had given for it when it was in a good and highly ornamented condition, though he had
 paid an extravagant price for it. 
 I will add this also, which is very important to the
 matter. When the commander-in-chief died, though he wished to invest a sum of money, got I
 know not how, in a farm, he did not so invest it, but he squandered it. 
 I do not very greatly wonder that, hampered as he was by his own folly, he wished to
 extricate himself how he could. But this I cannot marvel at sufficiently, this I am indignant
 at, that he strives to remedy his own folly at the expense of his neighbours, and that
 he endeavoured to pacify his own ill-temper by the injury of Tullius.