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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 [46] 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.