12.16. 16. Of Calumny with regard to the Crime of High Treason.
To do justice to the Csars, they were not the first devisers of the horrid
laws which they enacted. It was Sulla
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that taught them that
calumniators ought not to be punished; but the abuse was soon carried to
such excess as to reward them.
[47]
Footnotes
[46]
Sylla made a law of majesty, which is mentioned in Cicero's
Orations, Pro Cluentio, art. 3; In Pisonem, art. 21; and against Verres,
art. 5. "Familiar Epistles," Book iii, letter 11. Cæsar and Augustus inserted them in
the Julian Laws; others made additions to them.
[47]
Et quo quis distinctior accusator, eo magis honores
assequebatur, ac veluti sacrosanctus erat. -- Tacitus, "Annals," Book iv, 36.