If the trial were assigned to proceed on this ground, that the fact to be proved was,
 “That it had been done by the household,” then if any household itself had
 been unwilling to appear personally in the slaughter, and had either compelled or hired the
 assistance of other men, whether slaves or free men, all this trial, and the severe justice of
 the praetor, would be at an end. For no one can decide that, if the household were not present
 at a transaction, in that transaction the household itself committed damage with men armed, in
 a violent manner. Therefore, because that could be done, and done easily too, on that account
 it was not thought sufficient for investigation to be made as to what the household itself had
 done, but as to this point also, “What had been done by the malice of the
 household.”