Nothing indicates more the decay of society than when law becomes an engine of war for the use of the different parties, instead of remaining the sincere expression of the general needs. Each man who arrived at power rendered himself guilty on the morrow of that which he had condemned on the eve, and made the institutions of his country the slaves of his momentary passion. At one time it was the Consul Metellus who, in 697, retarded the nomination of the quæstors, in order to prevent that of the judges, with the view of shielding Clodius, his kinsman, from a judiciary accusation;[622] at another time it was Milo and Sextius who, by way of reprisals against the same consul, opposed all imaginable obstacles to the convocation of the comitia;[623] lastly, it was the Senate itself which (in 698) sought to retard the election of the judges, in order to deprive Clodius of the chance of being named ædile. The ancient custom of taking the auspices was no longer, in the eyes of anybody, more than a political manœuvre. Not one of the great personages whom the momentary favour of the people and the Senate raise to distinction preserve any true sentiment of rectitude. Cicero, who sees the whole Republic in himself, and who attacks as monstrous all which is done against him and without him, declares all the acts of the tribuneship of Clodius illegal; the rigid Cato, on the contrary, defends, through personal interest, these same acts, because Cicero’s pretension wounds his pride, and invalidates the mission he has received from Clodius.[624] Caius Cato violates the law by making public the Sibylline oracle. On all sides people have recourse to illegal means, which vary according to their several tempers; some, like Milo, Sextius, and Clodius, openly place themselves at the head of armed bands; others act with timidity and dissimulation, like Cicero, who, one day, after a previous unsuccessful attempt, carries away by stealth from the Capitol the plate of brass which bore inscribed the law which had proscribed him. A singular error of men, who believe that they efface history by destroying a few visible signs of the past!