This man, pursuing honors in an aristocratic government, acquired such great goodwill among the masses and such trust in the senate that when someone was undertaking to criticize him before the people in accordance with the customs of the Romans, and had made many accusations in a bitter fashion, he came forward and said nothing else, but said that it was not proper for the Roman people to hear anyone making accusations against Publius Cornelius Scipio, the man through whom the accusers possess the very privilege of speaking. When they heard this all the commoners immediately departed from the assembly leaving the accuser on his own.