===========================
THE SENATE HOUSE, ROME
===========================

Marcus Brutus hated to stand in front of the conscript Fathers, so much more when he had a legislation in his sinus ready to address the House with it! Haughty politicians as they were, Brutus preferred to stay at home reading something useful instead of moving down to the Curia Hostilia through all the traffic of a busy day. However, today was a different case. Just yesterday a dispatch had arrived from Utica with a courier, carrying a whole pile of copied documents, receits and a letter from cousin Lucius. Evidence of corruption. Lucius Calpurnius Bestia's corruption non the less! The letter demanded that a new legislation was provided in time before charges were pulled against the offender - not a matter of 'yes' or 'no' for Marcus Brutus so the lad begun at once to work in order to provide a stable senatorial degree draft proposal; and deliver it on the very next day, in session! Not what a calm, low tuned and methodical person like Marcus Brutus would appreciate - yet, here he was.

Taking the stand from the junior Consul, Publius Albatius Fabianus, Marcus Brutus proceeded from the back benches towards that narrow corridor in the middle of the House, the usual place for a senator to deliver a speech or vote on a motion. As he was about to begin Marcus Brutus rose a hand in the air demanding the silence of his audience; good, they've stopped.

"Esteemed Conscript Fathers, Senators and Leaders of our noble and just Republic." Marcus Brutus begun. "It is with great sorrow that I find myself looking at all you noblemen from way below that my family honour, my personal virtue and sense of duty would dictate, my name sullen by the actions of my kinsman, Lucius Junius." the Consuls winched in disgust that still Brutus's supporters and colleagues were ready with a speech at hand about that case but Marcus Brutus had a surprise for them in stock instead. "But I will not steal", Marcus Brutus continued, "your time with any more words on the specific case or lenghty proofs and clamours of innocence because we all know too well what has happened in Asia. My purpose today is a different one. I am not here to defend, Conscript Fathers, the actions of my kinsman nor any other's but to attack them!".

"You heard me right, Senators. I say, I am standing here before you all not to defend but to attack actions as despicable as these - alleged or true being no matter; we cannot know! What we can find out though, is how many of our ranks have emulated the deeds and honoured the -alleged to us but then again, allegation is as good as the truth for the simple people- actions of Lucius Junius and others and further than knowledge, we can put a stop to that demeaning practice once and for all! Senators, we cannot allow our politicians being sold and bought to the highest bidder as if they were oysters! No more, at least!"

"Not long before the so called King of Numidia, Jugurtha the Bastard, left Rome in a hurry to return to his lair and there plot against our Republic. How is it, I ask myself, that this Chamber who had summoned the pretender to the Numidian throne here in our capital by the hand of Praetor Lucius Cassius to stay outside in the Pomerium, in the Villa Publica, until summoned forth in the Assembly before the People of Rome to answer for alleged bribery of Roman magistrates and to negotiate a new peace treaty and a way to settle the dispute to the throne of Numidia, now that the bastard king is gone takes not a further action to discover the truthness of these alleged briberies? Does the Senate do not care that Roman Senators took money to act against the interests of the Senate and People of Rome?" with a long pause, Marcus Brutus examined the faces of the Senators. Though his vision was a little blurry - a side effect of tirdeness and many hours of study after dark to be ready for the big day - he could see in the first few rows mixed feelings: embarrassment, agony, pity, weariness. With a renewed breath, he continued.

"For once, Senators, let us act to defeat the problem on its root rather than chopping or burning out the branches. Let us pass a law that will establish SEVERE penalties against those who either offer or receive a bribery. Let us remember the early teachings of great Romans who believed that the money one acquires in life are temporary and can be lost in one lifetime or less while the value and honesty of the soul is the eternal glory and testiment for a true man! Let us emulate our own Manius Curius, who, given an enormous bribe from the Samnites, turned it down laughing. Let us make corruption and bribery once more a vice and not a necessary evil for every dog in Rome knows why we have come to receive briberies as a people - it is our ambition to excel in our pathway of glory! Being temporary short of cash but with the greatest will to spend more and more and more money for the good of our careers, we find ourselves enormously tempted to receive a bribe - that is true beyond doubt. Oh, Conscript Fathers! What times we live in, in what morals do the new generations believe in! Once Romans as Marcus Procius and Manius Curius were proud to boast about their own poverty! Now, each governor that is in hand reach of a bag of money greedily overstreches himself to grab it, to have its precious context. Eager to betray his morals for something as foul and ebasing as to acquire a new Villa in Neapolis or Baii! However, if the man that accepts a bribe is guilty of immoral conduct, the man that gives the bribe is guilty TWICE: both of immoral conduct and of corrupting another Roman citizen! These men, Senators, must me dealt with even MORE severety than that man who took the bribery!"

"Conscript Fathers, we must do our sacred duty to Rome, to the Gods and to our ancestral traditions! I call out to you all to support me in this important and virtoous legislation that will enable to counter this vice of our days, bribery. I call out to you to pass the Senatus Consultum Junium obviam corruptio, to activate severe penalties for all those that open the palm of their hand in request for money illegally acquired!" Marcus Brutus finished and produced a piece of parchement to the Senate.

=====================================
SENATUS CONSULTUM JUNIUM OBVIAM CORRUPTIO

A. That this Senate House decrees that every Senator or Magistrate of Rome convicted in a Roman court under the Roman law for the crime of ACCEPTING a bribery will be sentenced according to the severity of his crime as follows:

i. If the Senator or Magistrate is found guilty of accepting a bribe in return of a minor offence(ie. speaking in favour of the briber in Senate\Assembly, supporting the briber for a cause set as the goal of the bribery etc) will be fined three times the sum of the bribery.

ii. If the Senator or Magistrate is found guilty of accepting a bribe in return for a medium offence(ie. vetoying a legislation, casting a favourable vote in either Senate, Assembly or relegious colleges, casting a favourable vote for the offerer in the elections) will be denied entrance in the Senate for the end of the year as well as fined three times the sum of the bribery.

iii. If the Senator or Magistrate is found guilty of accepting a bribe in return for a serious offence or even treason against the Republic(ie. accepting a bribe to murder a Roman citizen, accepting a bribe to act against the wishes and wills of the Senate and People of Rome) will be sentenced with loss of his citizenship and exile for five years.

B. That this Senate House decrees that every Senator or Magistrate of Rome convicted in a Roman court under the Roman law of the crime of GIVING a bribe will be sentenced according to the severity of his crime as follows:

i. If the Senator or Magistrate is found guilty of giving a bribe in return of a minor offence(ie. speaking in favour of the briber in Senate\Assembly, supporting the briber for a cause set as the goal of the bribery etc) will be fined three times the sum of the bribery and be proscribed from the list of Senators for the end of the year and the year next.

ii. If the Senator or Magistrate is found guilty of giving a bribe in return for a medium offence(ie. vetoying a legislation, casting a favourable vote in either Senate, Assembly or relegious colleges, casting a favourable vote for the offerer in the elections) will be denied entrance in the Senate for four years.

iii. If the Senator or Magistrate is found guilty of giving a bribe in return for a serious offence or even treason against the Republic(ie. accepting a bribe to murder a Roman citizen, accepting a bribe to act against the wishes and wills of the Senate and People of Rome) will be sentenced with loss of his citizenship and voluntary exile for life on penalty of death.

C. That this Senate House decrees that every Senator or Magistrate of Rome ACCUSED by a Roman court under the Roman law of the crime of GIVING or ACCEPTING a bribe with the intent to act against the wishes and commands of the Senate and People of Rome will be dealt with as follows:

i. If the Senator or Magistrate is accused of treasonous actions by accepting or giving a bribe, he will be immidiately recalled in Rome for presence in an investigation about the truthness of the accusations.

ii. If the Senator or Magistrate is found guilty, he will be stripped of his office immidiately and will be brought to trial.