Leading examples may be found in the various prosecutions of St Athanasius, in whose case also there is the germ of an appeal, tanquam ab abusu.
He founded the " Allgemeiner Deutscher Arbeiterverein," was its president and almost single-handed champion, conducted its affairs, and carried on a vast correspondence, not to mention about a dozen state prosecutions in which he was during that period involved.
This result revolted public opinion; the bishops acquired the habit (rendered easier by the personal expense involved in setting the law in motion) of vetoing, under the power given to them in the act, all prosecutions; and the act became a dead letter.
It describes his entering Rome on foot, amid the rejoicings of the citizens; his liberality towards his soldiers and to the citizens of Rome, a liberality that was extended even to persons under eleven years of age; his charities for the maintenance of the children of the poor; his remission of succession-duties in cases where the property was small or the heirs members of the testator's family; his establishment of free trade in corn between the various parts of the empire; his abandonment of vexatious and petty prosecutions for "high treason"; his punishment of informers; his abolition of pantomimes; his repairs of public buildings and his extension and embellishment of the Circus Maximus.
The new emperor recalled those who had been exiled by Domitian; what remained of their confiscated property was restored to them, and a stop was put to the vexatious prosecutions which Domitian had encouraged.
