[16]
And in this, this is the first thing I object to and accuse you for, that in a
custom of such long standing, and so thoroughly established, you made any innovation
at all. Have you ever gained anything by this genius of yours? Were you superior in
prudence and wisdom to so many wise and illustrious men who governed that province
before you? That is your renown; this praise is due to your genius and diligence. I
admit and grant this to you. I do know that, at Rome, when you were praetor, you did transfer by your edict the
possession of inheritance from the children to strangers, from the first heirs to
the second, from the laws to your own licentious covetousness. I do know that you
corrected the edicts of all your predecessors, and gave possession of inheritance
not according to the evidence of those who produced the will, but according to
theirs who said that a will had been made. And I do know too that those new
practices, first brought forward and invented by you, were a very great profit to
you. I recollect, moreover, that you also abrogated and altered the laws of the
censors about the keeping the public buildings in repair; so that he might not take
the contract to whom the care of the building belonged; so that his guardians and
relations might not consult the advantage, of their ward so as to prevent his being
stripped of all his property; that you appointed a very limited time for the work,
in order to exclude others from the business; but that with respect to the
contractor you favoured, you did not observe any fixed time at all.
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