The minimum property qualification of the first class (100,000 sesterces) was just one quarter of that required of knights according to the figure first securely attested a few decades later. 48The wealthiest citizens just below the rank of the knights, the latter supplying the bulk of jurors (see 3.3n.).Therefore, it seems desirable for all citizens of the first census class 48 to serve as jurors but in greater numbers than at present. It is tyranny for jurors to be certified by a narrow circle of individuals for them to be chosen on the basis of money is shameful. Now, on the choice of a magistrate, the judgment of the people is easy. Let the right to pass judgment concerning capital cases and public office not be greater for some citizens and less for others in proportion to their wealth, just as neither a praetor nor a consul should be chosen because of his riches but because of his worth. For there is but one steep path to virtue people strive after money by whatever path they please money is produced by both dishonorable and honorable practices.Ībove all, therefore, deprive money of its influence. In short, where riches are regarded as a distinction, there all good qualities are of little account: good faith, uprightness, a sense of shame, chastity. In fact, diligence is nourished by glory when you take that away, virtue itself, on its own, is bitter and harsh. For when a good man beholds a baser person enjoying more renown and popularity as a result of riches, at first he seethes and keeps churning inside but when more and more each day vainglory prevails over honor, opulence over merit, a good man’s mind forsakes the truth in favor of pleasure. Often before now I have heard about kings, about city states and nations which have lost, through opulence, great empires that they had won through valor when poor. The mind from submitting more or less quickly, but inevitably. V 2: una et ardua via Aldus: via ardua Jordan 12 Neque Rhodios neque alias civitates unquam iudiciorum Quare omnes primae classis iudicare placet, sed numero plures quam iudicant. 11 Sed de magistratu facile populi iudicium fit iudices a paucis probari regnum est, ex pecunia legi inhonestum. Neque de capite neque de honore ex copiis quisquam magis aut minus iudicaverit, sicut neque praetor neque consul ex opulentia verum ex dignitate creetur. 9 Nam ad virtutem una ardua via 31 est ad pecuniam qua quoique lubet nititur et malis et bonis rebus ea creatur.ġ0 Ergo in primis auctoritatem pecuniae demito. 8 Postremo ubi divitiae clarae habentur, ibi omnia bona vilia sunt: fides, probitas, pudor, pudicitia. 7 Quippe gloria industria alitur ubi eam dempseris ipsa per se virtus amara atque aspera est. 6 Nam ubi bonus deteriorem divitiis magis clarum magisque acceptum videt, primo aestuat multaque in pectore volvit sed ubi gloria honorem magis in dies, virtutem opulentia vincit, animus ad voluptatem a vero deficit. 5 Saepe iam audivi qui reges, quae civitates et nationes per opulentiam magna imperia amiserint quae per virtutem inopes ceperant id eo 30 haud mirandum est. Pollet quin animus magis aut minus mature, postremo tamen succumbat.
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