[21]
There are two ways of bringing fear to bear upon
the judges. The commonest and most popular is to
threaten them with the displeasure of the Roman
people or the transference of the juries to another
class1; the second is somewhat brutal and is rarely
employed, and consists in threatening them with a
prosecution for bribery: this is a method which is
fairly safe with a large body of judges, since it
checks the bad and pleases the good members of
the jury, but I should never recommend its employment with a single judge2 except in the very last
resort.
1 e.g. in the Verrines Cicero points out to the jury, then drawn entirely from senators, that they are on their trial. If they fail in their duty, the constitution of the panels will be altered and the equites be admitted as well.
2 It must be borne in mind that iudex may be a juryman forming one of a large panel, or a single judge trying a civil action.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1921.
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