John Roberts: A Point of Law

Manilius drew himself up. “You may not accuse, nor lay violent hands upon, the person of a Tribune of the People!”

“Until sundown, Manilius,” Cato shouted, pointing at the angle of the sun. “At sundown you and all the other tribunes lay down your powers and become ordinary citizens. How far can you get by sundown, Manilius?”

“I declare this procedure at an end!” Manilius cried. “All citizens are to disperse!” With the shreds remaining of his dignity, he descended the steps and began his long walk across the Forum. People drew back from him as if he carried some deadly contagion. It gave new meaning to the word “untouchable.”

Cato strode to the edge of the podium and spoke to the soldiers. “A tribune loses his powers and his sacrosanctity if he passes the first milestone. Post men on all the roads out of the city and arrest him as soon as he passes the milestone.”

“Bring him back here alive,” I told them. “I want the names of his accomplices.”

“What are the chances,” Father asked, “that he’ll even reach one of the gates?”

“Slim,” I acknowledged. “Too many people need to clean up after themselves.”

“Unfortunate,” said Metellus Creticus. “It would be nice to get the Marcelli barred from the consulship.”

“Yes,” I said, “and now we’ll have to keep an eye on Curio.”

“Curio is Caesar’s man,” Scipio said. “Why would he be involved in this?”

Cato shook his head in disgust. “It’s like casting your net for a whole school of fish and drawing back only one, and that one not the biggest of them.”

“Sometimes,” I said, “you just have to catch them one at a time.”

All that was a long time ago. Of course, the Marcelli held onto the consulship and, as everyone knows, Caesar became dictator and Octavia’s brother, Octavius, became his heir; he is now our First Citizen. Ironically, Marcellus, the son of Caius Marcellus and Octavia, turned out to be the First Citizen’s favorite nephew and would have been his heir had he not died tragically young. Fulvia eventually married Antonius, but then, so did Octavia, although she lost him to Cleopatra. When you consider how it all turned out, it’s a little hard to understand what they were all fighting and clawing at one another for during those dying days of the Republic. But it all somehow seemed terribly important at the time.

These were the events of five days in the year 703 of the City of Rome, the consulship of Servius Sulpicius Rufus and Marcus Claudius Marcellus.