As all laws and all legal proceedings which seem at all harsh and severe have originated in
 the dishonesty and injustice of wicked men, so this form of procedure also has been
 established within these few years on account of the evil habits and excessive licentiousness
 of men. For when many families were said to be wandering armed about the distant fields and
 pasture lands, and to be committing murders, and as that fact appeared to concern not merely
 the estates of individuals, but the main interests of the republic, Marcus Lucullus, who often
 presided as judge with the greatest equity and wisdom, first planned this tribunal, and had
 regard to this object, that all men should so restrain their households that they should not
 only not go about armed to inflict damage on any one, but, even if they were attacked, should
 defend themselves by law, rather than by arms;