[8]
As all laws and all legal proceedings which seem at all harsh and severe have originated in
the dishonesty and injustice of wicked men, so this form of procedure also has been
established within these few years on account of the evil habits and excessive licentiousness
of men. For when many families were said to be wandering armed about the distant fields and
pasture lands, and to be committing murders, and as that fact appeared to concern not merely
the estates of individuals, but the main interests of the republic, Marcus Lucullus, who often
presided as judge with the greatest equity and wisdom, first planned this tribunal, and had
regard to this object, that all men should so restrain their households that they should not
only not go about armed to inflict damage on any one, but, even if they were attacked, should
defend themselves by law, rather than by arms;
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