were persons of great ability, and by no means contemptible as public speakers. Some of them were of ignoble birth, others were scions of ancient families, whom, whether high-born or low-born, ambition, poverty, or fashion—for there are endemics in public life as well as in certain states of the air—impelled to take up the profession of public prosecutor. Knights and senators did not blush to make a traffic of their eloquence and accomplishments; while a "new man"—that is, one who had no "blue blood" in his veins or waxen images in his hall—might, in dragging a culprit, or quite as likely an innocent person, before the senate, complaisantly compare himself to a tribune of the people in bygone days. In case of conviction, a portion of the fine fell regularly to their share, and it was often augmented by a special remuneration also. But money was not their sole reward. At a later time there was coined the proverb that Galen—a good medical practice—brought wealth; and Justinian—briefs at the bar—led to honors.[1] The informer, however, besides filling his pocket, reaped an ample harvest of political eminence and notoriety akin to fame. Hardly any one of this class of them, according to Tacitus or Pliny, possessed any private virtues. They were as covetous as they were unprincipled; but their greed of gain was limited to getting it, for the most part: they squandered their enormous fees, bribes, or gratuities as rapidly as they pocketed them. Frequently they suffered the miscry they had inflicted: a rich informer was an irresistible temptation to a brother of the craft; or a Cæsar whose profusion had drained the treasury,
- ↑ "Dat Galenus opes, dat Justinianus honores."
