Clament periisse pudorem Cuncti penè patres, ea cum reprehendere coner, Quæ gravis Æsopus, quæ doctus Roscius egit: Vel quia nil rectum, nisi quod placuit sibi, ducunt; Vel quia turpe putant parere minoribus, et, quæ Imberbes didicere, senes perdenda fateri.

It suited the patres with whom it originated, for they were for a time the sole gainers by it.

Next, that a full house might give additional strength to the senate, he filled up the number of senators, which had been diminished by the assassinations of Tarquinius, to the full number of three hundred, by electing the principal men of equestrian rank to fill their places: from this is said to have been derived the custom of summoning into the senate both the patres and those who were conscripti.

A most memorable observation, Scaliger accounts it, et non praetereundum, maximorum virorum plerosque patres ignoratos, matres impudicas fuisse.