Jackson Jambalaya

Rome was known for its laws and courts. Courts were usually staffed by senators and knights and judges were appointed by the Praetor Urbanus (who was the chief prosecutor as well as the Roman equivalent of mayor). There were several other praetors that served at the same time as he did. Rome was ruled by two assemblies, the Senate and the Plebeian Assembly (led by the Tribunes). The Tribunes (these were elected) had the authority to veto most actions of the Senate and if actning unanimously, could throw out most verdicts in the courts. Under the Roman legal system, civil suits for damages could be filed as in America.

In the year of the Consulship of Marcus Minicus Rufus and Spurius Postimus Albinus, the hallowed Roman system was compromised. Advocates such as Rutilius Scrulinius, Julius Langilus, Titus Baltius, and others became extremely wealthy from winning suit after suit against rich defendants. They used an arrangement that would make Marcus Licinius Crassus proud in that they didn't charge but a small fee from the plaintiff before they took the suit but received a large share of the winnings if successful. Although this practice was publicly decried by Senators and Consuls alike, they were able to continue in their subversion of the Roman legal system as they always bought several tribunes of the plebeians. Under Roman law, the tribunes could veto any act of the Senate and all 12 tribunes could overturn any verdict of the court. Having paid off the tribunes, the legal mafia did not have to worry about unfavorable verdicts nor the Senators and Consuls as long as they conspirators remained silent.

However, the legal mafia was not stupid nor short-sighted as they also bribed the Praetor Urbanus, giving them an additional tool as they could threaten a hapless defendant with a criminal prosecution if he did not settle the lawsuit. Several fortunes were acquired this way. Since the Praetor Urbanus was always their candidate, many lawsuits never even went to trial, thus providing the legal mafia with a never-ending source of income.

Finally, the Senate and Consuls had had enough when one of their own, Gaius Lucius Cotta lost his entire fortune and was exiled due to one of their scams in the extortion court. The Cottae family was known for its virtue, centuries-long service to Rome, and its immense wealth. While Cotta was proconsul of Macedonia, the legal mafia set their sights on him as they planned on seizing his fortune in their little web. While he was proconsul, they had documents forged, Romans impersonating his officials stole money from the treasury, and other false evidence of crimes was planted. They bought a few of his minor officials, granted them immunity, and thus acquired completely false testimony against Cotta. When he returned to Rome when his term as proconsul, and thus imperium, was over, they struck and filed a lawsuit on behalf of some poor Macedonians alleging that he stole from the Roman treasury, seized Macedonian assets and works of art for himself, and tortured Macedonians. Praetor Urbanus Junicus Hortensius met with Cotta's advocate, Michaelis Milo, and told him Cotta had two options: surrender his entire fortune or else he could face a criminal prosecution by Hortensius that would see him lose his entire fortune as well as face exile, the loss of his Roman citizenship, or even the possibility of being thrown off of the Tarpenian Rock, which was the only death penalty allowed for Roman citizens.

It was interesting that Milo was his advocate as Michaelis had been the previous Praetor Urbanus and was very popular as he had taken on those who had gotten rich off of Romans who had become very rich by overcharging Rome for producing arms during the Punic Wars. It was also made clear to Cotta that any favorable verdict to him would be overturned by the tribunes. Thus Cotta was forced to surrender his entire fortune to the plaintiffs. It was noted afterwards that the legal mafia had several stunning villas built on the Palatine that were palaces worthy of any Oriental king after the verdict. Rumors of their wealth flew as they were considered to be the new masters of Rome.

This was the last straw for the Consuls and the Senate, who undertook to stop this hijacking of Rome and its legal traditions. No Roman was truly ethical but there was still a certain fairness about it. If a Senator took money in order to help a supporter get a state contract or a proconsul taxed more of his province than Rome required, that was one thing. However, this legal mafia had worked out a perfect conspiracy that operated at a much higher level and threatened to wreck Rome.

The Consuls began an investigation, backed by a law passed by the Senate and the Plebeian Assembly giving them the authority and responsibility for ensuring the integrity of the courts as well as giving them full powers of prosecution. Rufus had been particularly outraged at the treatment of Cotta so he attacked this task with much enthusiasm.

Their big break came when one of them bought a slave who had once been owned by a former praetor, Edius Petronius. This particular slave was a Pontic female renowned for her ravenous beauty and being in her late twenties, was still quite attractive as Rufus was not immune to such pleasures himself. Unknown to Petronius, who had bought her for one particular reason, she was quite literate as her father had been a student at one of the schools of philosophy in Athens. She was quite familiar with the conspiracy as Petronius would usually brag about it after consuming large quantities of wine (Sicilian wine of course. These vultures were never cheap when it came to their own pleasures). Once after she had not satisfied him adequately, he punished her severely. When he traveled, she read more than a few documents he kept in his study for safekeeping as he never imagined his Pontic slave was literate in latin and greek.

Rufus traveled to Campania, where the slave had told him Petronius had placed much of his fortune in a Campanian bank. As Rufus was Consul, he was able to look at the bank's transactions and thus was able to see what exactly Petronius had deposited and withdrawn from his account at the bank. What was interesting was that within a week after Cotta lost his fortune, Petronius deposited one million sesterces in his account. The Consul was staggered by the sum as Petronius had been named the judge in that case. Rufus returned to Rome with his information and evidence. The Consul left two lictors at the bank with orders to prevent any movement of Petronius's money.

The Consul then had Petronius brought before him in the dead of the night for interrogation. With Rufus was the other Consul and the Princeps Senatus (the leader of the Senate), and several other leading Knights and Senators who had been untainted by the corruption of the legal mafia. Petronius was a Roman citizen and thus due certain rights. Therefor, he was granted immunity in exchange for testifying against the legal mafia. They were floored by the web that had been woven as Petronius detailed which Senators, Praetors, Judges, Tribunes, and other officials were paid off. Of chief interest to them was Scrulinius, Langilus, and Baltius.

As Baltius had always been known as a social climber who knew no Greek (the Roman way of saying someone was uncultured as literate Romans were expected to know Greek), he was their first target. He was someone who cared more about what people thought about him, possessing a weak character. He succumbed quickly to their pressure and told them everything he knew in exchange for the seizure of only half of his riches. As it was the corruption of the praetors, judges, and tribunes (which during the time of the Gracchi had become a thorn in their side) along with Scrulinius that was their target, they were willing to cut a deal with some of the conspirators.

Langilus, who was smarter than Baltius, better-connected, and had more to lose, blustered for awhile before he cut a deal. In exchange for his evidence and testimony, he received an exile from Rome of only three years and had to leave Italy while suffering a fine that still left him some of his money but not enough to where he would ever be a power in Roman society again. In the scrolls he provided, there were 25 judges that were shown to be in the legal mafia's pay. Now Rufus had a real and provable case for the extortion court. Scrulinius was summoned but resisted for several days. When he realized that his former cohorts in crime were lined up against them and the choice was either selling out the rest of his group or being thrown off of the Tarpenian Rock, he made a deal and received six years of exile and had to surrender his entire fortune as it was clear to him that even though he that he was related to several prominent senators through marriage, he was getting no protection in this case.

Many wondered why Rufus made a deal with Scrulinius. Rufus would reply that there would always be individuals who were looking to get rich and Scrulinius was merely one of those people. However, it was the praetors, judges, and tribunes who made it possible for people like him TO get rich and manipulate the system. His real target was not the advocates involved but the past two Praetor Urbanae, Juncus Hortensius and Michaelis Milo, who had made it possible for Scrulinus to win his lawsuits as they would threaten the victims with prosecution and had helped in corrupting the tribunes to safeguard against any honest verdicts. It was Hortensius and Milo who sold Rome out to the vultures, who had corrupted their class and Roman traditions, who had shown a despicable breed of advocates a way to power that left them immune from repercussions if left alone.

Scrulinius provided them with the documents implicating his former conspirators. Then the fun began. The Consul declared a state of emergency, backed by the Senate, and was made Dictator of Rome for 3 months (the other consul kept his office and imperium), thus protecting him from any legal repercussions after his terms was over. Rufus arrested Hortensius, Milo (who had just announced he was not going to run for consul after being a heavy favorite to win the election), and the other implicated officials. As this severely affected the governing of Rome, Rufus sadly assumed the role of Dictator in order to assure Rome that it would survive this crisis.

At trial much evidence and testimony was produced. The judge was Gnaieus Cethegus, who was so rich he couldn't be bought and whose family was one of the original families that over threw the King of Rome, establishing the Republic. At trial, there was no way Hortensius and Milo could overcome the mountain of evidence that stood against them. They had paid off judges over the years. Tribunes had been bought and sold like cheap Gallic slaves.

It soon came out that the conspiracy didn't stop at rich defendants but at smaller, lesser ones who had committed some slight upon them to earn their ire. One judge testified that they paid him so well that if the praetor wrote his charges on a linen napkin he would find in favor of the praetor without even looking at the evidence. The number of victims who were thrown in jail, exiled, made penniless, and extorted exceeded all estimates. Not even suicide was an escape as one victim's family discovered after he ended his life after being falsely prosecuted. They merely declared that his wife and children were responsible for his alleged misdeeds and exiled them from Rome after making them paupers. One poor soul chose to fight the suit Scrulinius filed against him. He lost when the judge appointed by Hortensius ruled against him (the jury rigged by the judge) and then Milo still prosecuted him. The victim lost everything in the civil suit then was exiled from Rome and Greece for the rest of his life. As the extent of the corruption became known, public opinion turned against the two defendants, who had been previously loved by the masses for their more progressive politics. Many a drink was raised at a crossroads college or tavern by the Tiber to the two heroes who were seen as sticking it to the rich and protecting the poor.

After the cases were presented, the verdicts were a foregone conclusion: Milo and Hortensius lost all of their riches. They were stripped of their Roman citizenship. None of their descendants would be allowed to regain the citizenship. The court decreed that the two should be thrown of off the Tarpenian Rock. Justice for the moment, had been done, Rufus and everyone else concluded after their final screams ceased. Rufus set about righting what wrongs he could and when the three month term ended, he finished out his term as Consul and lived out the rest of his days known as a hero of the Republic.