Plutarch's Romane Questions · Plutarch
49.
_How commeth it to passe, that those who stood for any office and magistracie, were woont by an old custome (as_ Cato _hath written) to present themselves unto the people in a single robe or loose gowne, without any coat at all under it_? WAS it for feare lest they should carrie under their robes any money in their bosomes, for to corrupt, bribe, and buy (as it were) the voices and suffrages of the people? Or was it because they deemed men woorthy to beare publicke office and to governe, not by their birth and parentage, by their wealth and riches, ne yet by their shew and outward reputation, but by their wounds and scarres to be seene upon their bodies. To the end therefore, that such scarres might be better exposed to their fight whom they met or talked withall, they went in this maner downe to the place of election, without inward coats in their plaine gownes. Or haply, because they would seeme by this nuditie and nakednesse of theirs, in humilitie to debase themselves, the sooner thereby to curry favor, and win the good grace of the commons, even as well as by taking them by the right hand, by suppliant craving, and by humble submission on their very knees.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.