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[2] A proof of the charm of his discourse may be found in an incident of his consulship connected with the public spectacles. In earlier times, it seems, the men of the equestrian order were mingled with the multitudes in the theatres and saw the spectacles along with the people, seated as chance would have it; Marcus Otho was the first to separate in point of honour the knights from the rest of the citizens, which he did when he was praetor,1 and gave them a particular place of their own at the spectacles, which they still retain.

1 It was in 67 B.C., four years before Cicero's consulship, that Lucius Roscius Otho, as tribune of the people, introduced his law giving the equites a special place at the spectacles, namely, the fourteen rows of seats next those of the senators. The law, however, had only recently been enacted.

Plutarch. Plutarch's Lives. with an English Translation by. Bernadotte Perrin. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. London. William Heinemann Ltd. 1919. 7.

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