Piso gave way, and the tribune also who had been in Clodius's
favor. The people were satisfied, and a court of fifty-six judges was
appointed, before whom the trial was to take place. It seemed that a
conviction must necessarily follow, for there was no question about the
facts, which were all admitted. There was some manoeuvring, however, in
the constitution of the court, which raised Cicero's suspicions. The
judges, instead of being selected by the praetor, were chosen by lot, and
the prisoner was allowed to challenge as many names as he pleased. The
result was that in Cicero's opinion a more scandalous set of persons than
those who were finally sworn were never collected round a gaming table--
"disgraced senators, bankrupt knights, disreputable tribunes of the
treasury, the few honest men that were left appearing to be ashamed of
their company"--and Cicero considered that it would have been better if
Hortensius, who was prosecuting, had withdrawn, and had left Clodius to be
condemned by the general sense of respectable people, rather than risk the
credit of Roman justice before so scandalous a tribunal.[1] Still the
case as it proceeded appeared so clear as to leave no hope of an
acquittal. Clodius's friends were in despair, and were meditating an
appeal to the mob. The judges, on the evening of the first day of the
trial, as if they had already decided on a verdict of guilty, applied for
a guard to protect them while they delivered it.
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