The jurisdiction of the aediles as well as that of the tribunes suffered from the growth of standing courts.[1991] The fact that the power remained, provided the holder was in a position to use it, is proved by the occasional recurrence of a prosecution in the lifetime of Cicero. First may be mentioned the proceedings instituted by C. Flavius Fimbria, aedile in 86, against Q. Scaevola. Evidently the case did not come to vote.[1992] Interesting is the threat of Cicero[1993] as curule aedile to bring to trial before the people C. Verres and all who should by bribery aid his acquittal. The circumstance that Cicero was ready to place so great a function upon the aedileship is proof of the confusion into which the ideas of popular jurisdiction had fallen through infrequent use.[1994] Another anomaly is the prosecution begun by P. Clodius against T. Annius Milo on the charge of violence (vis).[1995] It took place in the Forum before the comitia tributa, but we do not know whether it came to a vote. III. _Pontifical Jurisdiction_ In the exercise of his disciplinary power the supreme pontiff sometimes imposed a fine on a sacerdos under his authority. An appeal to the thirty-five tribes was allowed, if the amount of the penalty reached the appealable limit.[1996] After the analogy of the civil magistrate the pontiff presided over the assembly during the trial.[1997] In 189 Q. Fabius Pictor, who was at the same time praetor and flamen Quirinalis, was forbidden by the supreme pontiff to go to the province assigned him. After much contention the pontiff imposed a fine, and an appeal was taken to the people, who decided that the flamen must obey the pontifex maximus, and on that condition remitted the fine.[1998] In 180 L. Cornelius Dolabella was fined for refusal to resign his office of naval duumvir that he might be inaugurated rex sacrificulus. The case was decided as the preceding, but an unfavorable omen which dissolved the assembly deterred the pontiffs from inaugurating him.[1999] A similar case occurred in 131.[2000] In the appeal of Claudius, an augur, from a pontifical fine, the date of which is unknown, though it probably followed the trials above mentioned, the people sustained the accused.[2001] These are the few recorded cases of appeal from sacerdotal jurisdiction. The moderation of the pontifex maximus, together with the respect of his sacerdotes for religion, usually served to prevent the need of recourse to the people. It is a noteworthy fact that the custom was practically conterminous with the era of the most highly developed plutocracy. The circumstance that in all the cases known to have fallen within this period the people confirmed the authority of the pontiff affords striking evidence of the perfection to which the optimates had now brought the religious machinery of their political system.[2002]