Lucius Cassius Longinus (proconsul 48 BC) in the context of "Triumvir monetalis"

A democracy is a political system, or a system of decision-making within an institution, organization, or state, in which members have a share of power. Modern democracies are characterized by two capabilities of their citizens that differentiate them fundamentally from earlier forms of government: to intervene in society and have their sovereign (e.g., their representatives) held accountable to the international laws of other governments of their kind. Democratic government is commonly juxtaposed with oligarchic and monarchic systems, which are ruled by a minority and a sole monarch respectively.

Democracy is generally associated with the efforts of the ancient Greeks, whom 18th-century intellectuals such as Montesquieu considered the founders of Western civilization. These individuals attempted to leverage these early democratic experiments into a new template for post-monarchical political organization. The extent to which these 18th-century democratic revivalists succeeded in turning the democratic ideals of the ancient Greeks into the dominant political institution of the next 300 years is hardly debatable, even if the moral justifications they often employed might be. Nevertheless, the critical historical juncture catalyzed by the resurrection of democratic ideals and institutions fundamentally transformed the ensuing centuries and has dominated the international landscape since the dismantling of the final vestige of the British Empire following the end of the Second World War.

Aemilia, Licinia and Marcia were Roman vestal Virgins, who were prosecuted for having broken the vow of chastity in two famous trials between 115 and 113 BC. The first trial was conducted by the Pontifex Maximus Metellus Delmaticus, who sentenced Aemilia to death in 114 BC. The decision to spare the other two vestals triggered outrage and led to a follow-up trial headed by Cassius Longinus Ravilla. Licinia and Marcia were subsequently put to death as well. The trials were heavily influenced by the political background and network of the participants.

The Pro Plancio, sometimes named as the Pro Cn. Plancio, or the Planciana, was a speech given by the Roman lawyer and statesman Cicero in September 54 BCE. In the speech, delivered in the Roman Forum, Cicero defended Gnaeus Plancius [la], who had been elected as aedile (a junior civic official) the previous year, against a charge of electoral malpractice (ambitus) levelled by Marcus Iuventius Laterensis [la], one of his defeated opponents. The outcome of the trial is not known, though it is often suggested that Cicero won.

Plancius was prosecuted under the lex Licinia de sodaliciis, which criminalised the improper use of electoral associations (sodalitates); the prosecution, conducted by Laterensis with the assistance of Lucius Cassius Longinus, appears to have offered little evidence that Plancius had specifically committed this crime, rather than more general electoral infractions. In the Pro Plancio, Cicero defends Plancius's character and asserts the legitimacy of his election, claiming that Laterensis had made his prosecution under the lex Licinia in order to benefit from its unusual process of jury selection, which advantaged the prosecution. Throughout the speech, Cicero emphasises his twofold friendship with Laterensis and Plancius, who had both assisted him during a period of exile in 58–57 BCE. The bulk of the speech deals not with the charges against Plancius, but with asserting his personal merits and those of Cicero himself.