[145] At the same time they appointed to the magistracies those who had been selected beforehand by the members of their respective tribes[139] and townships,[140] having made of the offices, not prizes to fight for or to tempt ambition,[141] but responsibilities much more comparable to the liturgies,[142] which are burdensome to those to whom they are assigned, although conferring upon them a kind of distinction. For the men who had been elected to office were required to neglect their own possessions and at the same time to abstain no less from the gratuities which are wont to be given to the offices than from the treasures of the gods. (Who under the present dispensation would submit to such restrictions?)