he marvel to me is that one man such as
Cicero--a man single in his purpose--should have been able to raise his
own ideas of justice so high above the level prevailing with the best of
those around him. It had become the nature of a Roman aristocrat to
pillage an ally till hardly the skin should be left to cover the man's
bones. Out of this nature Cicero elevated himself completely. In his own
conduct he was free altogether from stain. The question here arose how
far he could dare to go on offending the instincts, the habits, the
nature, of other noble Romans, in protecting from their rapacity the
poor subjects who were temporarily beneath his charge. It is easy for a
judge to stand indifferent between a great man and a little when the
feelings of the world around him are in favor of such impartiality; but
it must have been hard enough to do so when such conduct seemed to the
noblest Romans of the day to be monstrous, fanatical, and pretentious.

In this case Brutus, our old friend whom all English readers have so
much admired because he dared to tell his brother-in-law Cassius that he
was

"Much condemned to have an itching palm,"

appears before us in the guise of an usurious money-lender. It would be
hard in the history of usury to come across the well-ascertained details
of a more grasping, griping usurer. His practice had been of the kind
which we may have been accustomed to hear rebuked with the scathing
indignation of our just judges. But yet Brutus was accounted one of the
noblest Romans of the day, only second, if second, to Cato in general
virtue and philosophy. In this trade of money-lending the Roman nobleman
had found no more lucrative business than that of dealing with the
municipalities of the allies. The cities were peopled by a money-making,
commercial race, but they were subjected to the grinding impositions of
their governors. Under this affliction they were constantly driven to
borrow money, and found the capitalists who supplied it among the class
by whom they were persecuted and pillaged. A Brutus lent the money which
an Appius exacted--and did not scruple to do so at forty-eight per
cent., although twelve per cent. per annum, or one per cent. per month,
was the rate of interest permitted by law.

But a noble Roman such as Brutus did not carry on his business of this
nature altogether in his own name. Brutus dealt with the municipality of
Salamis in the island of Cyprus, and there had two agen