This text is part of: Table of Contents: At Rome meanwhile,
without any motive then known or subsequently ascertained,
Cneius Nonius, a Roman knight, was found wearing a sword amid a
crowd who were paying their respects to the emperor. The man
confessed his own guilt when he was being torn in pieces by
torture, but gave up no accomplices, perhaps having none to
hide. During the same consulship, Publius Dolabella proposed
that a spectacle of gladiators should be annually exhibited at
the cost of those who obtained the quæstorship. In our
ancestors' days this honour had been a reward of virtue, and
every citizen, with good qualities to support him, was allowed
to compete for office. At first there were no distinctions even
of age, which prevented a man in his early youth from becoming a
consul or a dictator. The quæstors indeed were appointed while
the kings still ruled, and this the revival by Brutus of the lex
curiata plainly shows. The consuls retained the power of
selecting them, till the people bestowed th