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52Very many had been called to account on the charge mentioned, especially because the trials, by Pompey’s laws, were more carefully conducted. He himself selected the entire list of names from which drawings for jurors must be made, and he limited the number of advocates on each side, in order that the jurymen might not be confused and embarrassed by their number. 2And he ordered that the time allotted to the plaintiff should be only two hours, and to the defendant three. But what grieved a great many most was his reform of the custom whereby character-witnesses were brought forward by those on trial, with the result that great numbers were snatched from justice because they were commended by credible witnesses; he had a measure passed that no character-witnesses at all should henceforth be allowed to such persons. 3These and other reforms he applied to all the courts alike; and against those who practised bribery for office he raised up as accusers those who had formerly been convicted of some such offence, setting before the latter no small prize. For if any one secured the conviction of two men on charges similar to the one against himself, or even on slighter charges, or of one man on a greater charge, he gained pardon himself.
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