Since the presiding officer did not "charge" criminal juries with rules for what the case was supposed to be about, the parties offered their own versions, sometimes in a daring way: "When I was consul, I defended Lucius Murena, the consul-designate. None of the jurors in that case thought that they were to pass judgment about his alleged corrupt campaigning, despite the illustrious accusors, since all of us knew that there needed to be two consuls in place on the first of January [Roman inauguration day] while Catiline was waging war."

Source: Paul MacKendrick, The Speeches of Cicero (London: Duckworth, 1995).