The era of the full-grown plutocracy, 201-134, is characterized by the great number of prosecutions of eminent persons for political objects. M. Porcius Cato was several times brought to trial for the conduct of his consulship, 195, with the result that the speeches delivered in his own defence filled a volume.[1941] In 189 M’. Acilius Glabrio, then candidate for the censorship, was accused of peculatus of booty by two tribunes in a finable action of a hundred thousand asses. The crime was alleged to have been committed in the preceding year, when as proconsul the accused gained over the Aetolians and Antiochus a victory by which he won the right to a triumph.[1942] Cato, formerly his military tribune and now a competitor for the censorship, appearing as a witness, delivered at least four speeches against him. These proceedings forced Acilius to drop the candidacy, whereupon the accusation was withdrawn.[1943] The attack upon this man is to be regarded as a manoeuvre of Cato and his supporters against his political adversaries, the Scipios, who numbered the accused among their friends. In 185 Cato was ready for a direct assault. In that year two of his supporters, both named Q. Petillius, tribunes of the plebs, made in the senate at his instance a demand that L. Scipio Asiagenus[1944] should render an account of the three thousand talents paid him as war indemnity by Antiochus among the conditions of peace. His brother Publius, knowing well that the blow was in reality aimed at himself, resolved to measure his full strength with that of his adversaries. When accordingly the record of the transaction was produced, Publius, complaining that an account of three thousand talents should be demanded of a man who had brought fifteen thousand into the treasury from booty, tore the document in pieces.[1945] In this proceeding he kept strictly within his legal rights.[1946] Nothing further seems to have been accomplished for the present;[1947] but M. Naevius, tribune of the plebs, after entering office December 10, 185, brought against Publius Scipio a prosecution, not for peculatus, but for official misconduct. The specific charge was that in return for the restoration of his son from captivity he, as legatus of his brother, had granted too favorable terms of peace to Antiochus. In the first contio the accused recited his services to the state; in the second, which happened to fall on the anniversary of his victory over Hannibal, he invited the people there assembled to go with him to the Capitoline temple to give thanks to Jupiter, Juno, Minerva, and the gods who kept the place, for having endowed him with the will and the ability to achieve that and other similar deeds in behalf of the commonwealth.[1948] Naturally the dissolution of the assembly vexed the tribunes. Before the day came for the third contio he withdrew from Rome. His brother tried to excuse his absence on the plea of sickness, and Ti. Sempronius Gracchus, tribune of