So, Therefore, Quirites...

New Zealand Listener, Volume 15, Issue 388, 29 November 1946, Page 10

So, Therefore, Quirites...

ICHARD SINGER, whose talks on Famous Figures of the Bar are being heard from’'3YA, made for a recent one the unexpected choice of Cicero, Certainly the practice of the Roman law courts would provide a rich harvest of that type of anecdote which enriches the life of the legal profession. It was customary, for instance, for prosecuting counsel to launch upon the most savage ‘and detailed interpretation of the ac-

cused man’s private morals, even though these had nothing whatever to do with the case. "From his earliest youth he showed signs of the vilest and most unnatural forms of depravity and_ since that time he _ has

steadily degenerated" was a familiar opening. The joke is that the accused was expected to take all this in good part; it was a regular part of forensic proceedings and to treat it seriously or show signs of resentment was simply not done. You came into court with your head bowed and brought your family wearing full mourning, to move the hearts of the judges; your political friends stood around in large numbers, looking militant; and as a general rule you were either acquitted or sent into exile. This might be no hardship; a notorious political gangster whom Cicero had been briefed to defend on a charge of murder, but had been frightened out of assisting, wrote subsequently: "I have been reading the speech you were to have delivered on my behalf and greatly admire it. However, I am quite glad it was not spoken, for it would have assuredly secured my acquittal and I should never have found how good the mullet at Marseilles taste." All this, of course, represents only the political aspect of legal life; to judge Roman law by it would be to criticise the work of Justice Holmes by the Sacco-Vanzetti case.