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CHAP. XIV.: Of the Spirit of the Roman Senate. - Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu, Complete Works, vol. 1 The Spirit of Laws [1748]

Edition used:

The Complete Works of M. de Montesquieu (London: T. Evans, 1777), 4 vols. Vol. 1.

Part of: Complete Works of Montesquieu, 4 vols.

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CHAP. XIV.

Of the Spirit of the Roman Senate.

UNDER the consulate of Acilius Glabrio and Piso the Acilian law was made, to prevent the intriguing for places. Dio says,§ that the senate engaged the consuls to propose it, by reason that C. Cornelius, the tribune, had resolved to cause more severe punishments to be established against this crime; to which the people seemed greatly inclined. The senate rightly judged, that immoderate punishments would strike indeed a terror into people’s minds, but must have also this effect, that there would be nobody afterwards to accuse or condemn; whereas, by proposing moderate penalties, there would be always judges and accusers.

[]The guilty were condemned to a fine; they could not be admitted into the rank of senators, nor nominated to any public office. Dio, book 36.

[§ ]Book 36.