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Powandas Directory 09
Page 01
On October 19th we came in for a howling storm of wind and rain, waves being produced in the river as high as those that occur in the sea. We tossed about considerably and shipped a lot of water. More immense sand-beaches were passed, and then we came to a region of domed rocks showing along the river bank. At all the _baracaos_, or trading sheds where the _seringueiros_ bought their supplies, the same rubbish was for sale: condemned, quite uneatable ship biscuits sold at 5_s._ a kilo; Epsom salts at the rate of L2 sterling a kilo; putrid tinned meat at the rate of 10_s._ a tin; 1-lb. tins of the commonest French salt butter fetched the price of 10_s._ each. The conversation at all those halting-places where the trading boats stopped was dull beyond words, the local scandal--there was plenty of it always--having little interest for me.
The law by which the Judices were to be taken only from the Equites, and not from the Senators, as had been the custom hitherto. This was a very important enactment, and needs a little explanation. All offenses against the state were originally tried in the Popular Assembly; but when special enactments were passed for the trial of particular offenses, the practice was introduced of forming a body of Judices for the trial of these offenses. This was first done upon the passing of the Calpurnian Law (B.C., 149) for the punishment of provincial magistrates for extortion in their government (_De Repetendis_). Such offenses had to be tried before the Praetor and a jury of Senators; but as these very Senators either had been or hoped to be provincial magistrates, they were not disposed to visit with severity offenses of which they themselves either had been or were likely to be guilty. By depriving the Senators of this judicial power, and by transferring it to the Equites, Gracchus also made the latter a political order in the state apart from their military character. The name of Equites was now applied to all persons who were qualified by their fortune to act as Judices, whether they served in the army or not. From this time is dated the creation of an _Ordo Equestris_, whose interests were frequently opposed to those of the Senate, and who therefore served as a check upon the latter.
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