[7]
But what is the meaning of this, that they fix no place for this auction which they are
establishing? For power is given to the decemvirs by this law, of holding their sales in any
places which seem convenient to them. The censors are not allowed to let the contracts for
farming the revenues, except in the sight of the Roman people. Shall these men be allowed to
sell them in the most distant countries? But even the most profligate men, when they have
squandered their patrimony, prefer selling their property in the auctioneer's rooms, rather
than in the roads, or in the streets. This man, by his law, gives leave to the decemvirs to
sell the property of the Roman people in whatever darkness and whatever solitude they find it
convenient.
M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge, B. A. London. Henry G. Bohn, York Street, Covent Garden. 1856.
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