---
title: "For Flaccus · Pro L. Flacco"
author: "Cicero"
translator: "Charles Duke Yonge"
languages: [la, en]
shelf: "Classical Latin"
url: https://scriptura.si/works/cicero-pro-flacco/
cite: "Cicero, tr. Charles Duke Yonge, For Flaccus · Pro L. Flacco. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/cicero-pro-flacco/"
---

# For Flaccus · Pro L. Flacco

*Cicero, tr. Charles Duke Yonge*

A governor of Asia defended against Greek and Jewish witnesses.

> Latin: ed. Albert Curtis Clark, from the Perseus Digital Library (canonical-latinLit, phi0474.phi017, CC BY-SA 4.0).

> English: Charles Duke Yonge, from the Perseus Digital Library (phi0474.phi017.perseus-eng2). Notes are not included.

> Rows follow the references the two texts share (chapters and sections), cut where both reach the end of a sentence.

## Contents

1. [Sections 3–24](https://scriptura.si/works/cicero-pro-flacco/1.md)
2. [Sections 25–49](https://scriptura.si/works/cicero-pro-flacco/2.md)
3. [Sections 50–78](https://scriptura.si/works/cicero-pro-flacco/3.md)
4. [Sections 79–106](https://scriptura.si/works/cicero-pro-flacco/4.md)

## 1. Sections 3–24

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/cicero-pro-flacco/1/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/cicero-pro-flacco/1/#p-N

[¶0] Lucius Valerius Flaccus had been praetor in Cicero's consulship, and had received the thanks of the senate for his zeal and vigour in the arrest of Catiline's accomplices; but he was now accused by Publius Lucius of rapine and oppression in the province of Asia, which had fallen to his lot after his praetorship. Part of the charge was on the ground that he had prohibited the Jews from carrying out of his province the gold which they used to collect annually throughout the empire for the temple at Jerusalem, and that he had seized it all, and remitted it to Rome. Hortensius was joined with Cicero in the defence; as is mentioned by Cicero in the last epistle of the second book of the Letters to Atticus; where he says, “With how much copiousness, with how much nobleness, with how much elegance, did your friend Hortensius extol me to the skies, both when he was speaking of the praetorship of Flaccus, and of the times of the Allobroges.” We may observe, since there has been some dispute as to the order in which this oration should be printed, that it cannot have been spoken before the year 695, A. U. C., in the consulship of Caius Julius Caesar and Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus, for Cicero's consulship took place A. U. C. 691, and after that Flaccus was occupied as propraetor for three years in Asia, and it could not have been before the expiration of his praetorship, and his return from it, that this prosecution was instituted. Flaccus was acquitted. This oration is imperfect and mutilated in some places. When in the greatest perils of this city and empire, in the most important and terrible disasters of the republic, I was repelling slaughter from you, your wives, and your children, devastation from your temples, your altars, from the city and from Italy, with Lucius Flaccus, the companion and assistant of my counsels and my dangers, I used to hope, O judges, that I should some time or other be an assistant of Lucius Flaccus towards obtaining honour, rather than an advocate to defend him from calamity. For what reward of dignity could there be which the Roman people would deny to him, when it had always given them to his ancestors; when Lucius Flaccus had imitated the ancient glory of the Valerian family in delivering his country, nearly five hundred years after the existence of the republic? But if by chance there had existed at any time any detractor from this service, any enemy of this virtue, and envier of this renown, still I thought that Lucius Flaccus would have to encounter the judgment of an ignorant mob, (with no real danger, indeed,) rather than that of most wise and carefully chosen men. I never, indeed, imagined that any one would bring danger upon, or devise plots against, his fortunes, by means of those very men, by whose influence, and under whose protection, the safety, not only of all the citizens, but even of all nations, was at that time defended and preserved. And if it was fated ever to happen that any one should devise mischief to Lucius Flaccus, still I never thought, O judges, that Decimus Laelius, the son of a most virtuous man, himself a man of the fairest expectations and of the highest dignity, would adopt an accusation which is more suitable to the hatred and madness of wicked citizens than to his virtue and to the training of his early years. Indeed, as I had often seen well-founded enmities with citizens who had deserved well of their country, laid aside by the most illustrious men, I did not think that any friend of the republic, after the affection of Lucius Flaccus had been thoroughly tried, would take up a fresh quarrel against him without having received any injury.

> Latin: Cum in maximis periculis huius urbis atque imperi, gravissimo atque acerbissimo rei publicae casu, socio atque adiutore consiliorum periculorumque meorum L. Flacco, caedem a vobis, coniugibus, liberis vestris, vastitatem a templis, delubris, urbe, Italia depellebam, sperabam, iudices, honoris potius L. Flacci me adiutorem futurum quam miseriarum deprecatorem. enim esset praemium dignitatis quod populus Romanus, cum huius maioribus semper detulisset, huic denegaret, cum L. Flaccus veterem Valeriae gentis in liberanda patria laudem prope quingentesimo anno rei publicae rettulisset? si forte aliquando aut benefici huius obtrectator aut virtutis hostis aut laudis invidus exstitisset, existimabam L. Flacco multitudinis potius imperitae, nullo tamen cum periculo, quam sapientissimorum et lectissimorum virorum iudicium esse subeundum. quibus auctoribus et defensoribus omnium tum salus esset non civium solum verum etiam gentium defensa ac retenta, neminem umquam putavi per eos ipsos periculum huius fortunis atque insidias creaturum. si esset aliquando futurum ut aliquis de L. ⟨Flacci⟩ pernicie cogitaret, numquam tamen existimavi, iudices, D. Laelium, optimi viri filium, optima ipsum spe praeditum summae dignitatis, eam suscepturum accusationem quae sceleratorum civium potius odio et furori quam ipsius virtuti atque institutae adulescentiae conveniret. cum a clarissimis viris iustissimas inimicitias saepe cum bene meritis civibus depositas esse vidissem, non sum arbitratus quemquam amicum rei publicae, postea quam L. Flacci amor in patriam perspectus esset, novas huic inimicitias nulla accepta iniuria denuntiaturum.

[¶1] 3. But since, O judges, many things have deceived us, both in our own affairs and in those of the republic, those things which must be borne, we bear. This only we ask of you,—that you will consider that the whole strength of the republic,—the whole constitution of the state,—all the memory of past, and the safety of present and the hope of future time, hangs and depends upon your power, upon your votes, upon this single trial. If ever the republic has had need to implore the wisdom, the gravity, the prudence and the foresight of her judges, she implores it now,—she implores it, I say, at this present time. You are not now about to decide on the constitution of Lydians, or Mysians, or Phrygians, who, under the influence of some compulsion or excitement have come before you; but on your own republic,—on the constitution of your own state,—on the common safety,—on the hope of all good men, if there is any such still remaining to support the minds and thoughts of brave citizens. Every other refuge of good men,—every other protection of innocent men,—every bulwark of the republic, wisdom, assistance, and laws, has failed.

> Latin: 3. quoniam, iudices, multa nos et in nostris rebus et in re publica fefellerunt, ferimus ea quae sunt ferenda; tantum a vobis petimus ut omnia rei publicae subsidia, totum statum civitatis, omnem memoriam temporum praeteritorum, salutem praesentium, spem reliquorum in vestra potestate, in vestris sententiis, in hoc uno iudicio positam esse et defixam putetis. umquam res publica consilium, gravitatem, sapientiam, providentiam iudicum imploravit, hoc, hoc inquam, tempore implorat. estis de Lydorum aut Mysorum aut Phrygum, qui huc compulsi concitatique venerunt, sed de vestra re publica iudicaturi, de civitatis statu, de communi salute, de spe bonorum omnium, si qua reliqua est etiam nunc quae fortium civium mentis cogitationesque sustentet; omnia alia perfugia bonorum, praesidia innocentium, subsidia rei publicae, consilia, auxilia, iura ceciderunt.

[¶2] 4. For whom else can I appeal to? whom can I cite? whom can I entreat? The senate? Nay; the senate itself implores assistance from you, and feels that the confirmation of its authority is submitted to your decision. The Roman knights? You yourselves, the fifty chief men of that body, will declare how far your sentiments are in unison with those of the rest. Shall I appeal to the Roman people? That body has delivered over to you all its power over us in our case. Wherefore, unless we can maintain in this place, and before you, and by your means, O judges, I will not say our authority, for that is lost but our safety, which hangs on a slender hope, and that hope our last, we have no place of refuge beyond to which we can betake ourselves. Unless perchance, O judges, you fail to see, as yet, what is the real object of this proceeding, what is really at stake, and what is the cause, the foundations of which are being now laid.

> Latin: 4. enim appellem, quem obtester, quem implorem?? is ipse auxilium petit a vobis et confirmationem auctoritatis suae vestrae potestati permissam esse sentit. equites Romanos? principes eius ordinis quinquaginta quid cum omnibus senseritis. populum Romanum? is quidem omnem suam de nobis potestatem tradidit vobis. ob rem nisi hoc loco, nisi apud vos, nisi per vos, iudices, non auctoritatem, quae amissa est, sed salutem nostram, quae spe exigua extremaque pendet, tenuerimus, nihil est praeterea quo confugere possimus; nisi forte quae res hoc iudicio temptetur, quid agatur, cui causae fundamenta iaciantur, iudices, non videtis.

[¶3] 5. The man has been condemned who slew Catiline when he was bearing his hostile standards against his country. What reason is there why he who drove Catiline from the city should be exempt from fear? That man is demanded for punishment who discovered the proofs of the common destruction of all which was then being planned. Why should he feel safe who took care to produce and divulge those proofs? The partners of his counsels, his ministers and comrades are harassed. What are the leaders, and chiefs, and principal men of his party to expect? We should then see whether at that time all good men were my guides or my companions in preserving the common safety of … He preferred saying they were strangled. What did my friend Caetra wish? And what did Decianus? And I wish that my enemies, and those of all good men, would rather attack me; I wish it really was mine. The senate to a great extent … O ye immortal gods! that Lentulus … [What was the use of bringing forward foreign evidence,] when his domestic life and his natural disposition was notorious? Therefore, I will not, O Decimus Laelius, allow you to assume this law and this condition as applicable to yourself and to the rest for the future, and to us at present; [so as to lay down a rule that we are to accommodate our defences to the will of the prosecutors, and not come to those assertions to which our cause of itself leads us.] When you have branded his youth, when you have stigmatized the rest of his life with stains of infamy, when you have brought forward the ruin of his private affairs and his disgrace in the city, and his vices and crimes in Spain and Gaul and Cilicia, and Crete, in which provinces he lived in no great obscurity, then we shall hear what the people of Tmolus and the Lorymeni think of Lucius Flaccus. But the man whom so many and such influential provinces wish to be saved,—whom many citizens from all parts of Italy defended, being bound to him by intimate connection and old friendship,—whom this the common country of us all holds fast in her embrace, on account of her fresh recollection of his great services,—him, even if all Asia demands him for punishment, I will defend,—his enemies I will resist. What if it is not all Asia that demands him, nor the best part of it nor even any part without bribery, nor of its own accord, nor rightly, nor in a manner according to custom, nor with truth, nor with any conscientious regard to justice or honesty? If it duly demands him because it has been persuaded, and tampered with, and excited, and compelled to do so,—if it has backed this prosecution with its name impiously, and rashly, and covetously, and with great inconsistency, speaking only by the mouth of the most needy witnesses, and if the province itself has no grounds to complain with truth of any injuries done by him; still, O judges, will these statements, heard with reference to a very brief epoch diminish the credit due to actions which we really know, extending over a long period of time? I, therefore, as his defender, will preserve this order which his enemy avoids; and I will pursue and follow up the prosecutor, and of my own accord I will demand the accusation from our adversary. What is it, O Laelius? Have you at any time been able to stigmatize the youth of Lucius Flaccus, who has passed his time, not in the shade, nor in the common pursuits and training of those his age? In truth, even as a boy he went with his father, the consul, to the wars; and yet, even as to this very fact you accused him of something because [something appeared able to be said so as to excite suspicion.]

> Latin: 5. est is qui Catilinam signa patriae inferentem interemit; quid est causae cur non is qui Catilinam ex urbe expulit pertimescat? ad poenam qui indicia communis exiti cepit; cur sibi confidat is qui ea proferenda et patefacienda curavit? consiliorum, ministri comitesque vexantur; quid auctores, quid duces, quid principes sibi exspectent? utinam inimici nostri ac bonorum omnium mecum potius aestiment, utrum tum omnes boni duces nostri an comites fuerint ad communem conservandam salutem … Fragmenta a Scholiasta Bobiensi Servata
i. maluit dicere.
ii. sibi meus necessarius voluit?
iii. vero Decianus?
iv. vtinam esset proprie mea! igitur magna ex parte …
v., inquam, immortales Lentulum … Fragmenta Mediolanense … externum cum domestica vita naturaque constaret. non patiar, D. Laeli, te tibi hoc sumere atque hanc ceteris in posterum, nobis in praesens tempus legem condicionemque … Cum adulescentiam notaris, cum reliquum tempus aetatis turpitudinis maculis consperseris, cum privatarum rerum ruinas, cum domesticas labes, cum urbanam infamiam, cum Hispaniae, Galliae, Ciliciae, Cretae, quibus in provinciis non obscure versatus est, vitia et flagitia protuleris, tum denique quid Tmolitae et Dorylenses de L. Flacco existiment audiemus. vero tot tam gravesque provinciae salvum esse cupiant, quem plurimi cives tota ex Italia devincti necessitudine ac vetustate defendant, quem haec communis nostrum omnium patria propter recentem summi benefici memoriam complexa teneat, hunc etiam si tota Asia deposcit ad supplicium, defendam, resistam.? si neque tota neque optima neque incorrupta neque sua sponte nec iure nec more nec vere nec religiose nec integre, si impulsa, si sollicitata, si concitata, si coacta, si impie, si temere, si cupide, si inconstanter nomen suum misit in hoc iudicium per egentissimos testis, ipsa autem nihil queri vere de iniuriis potest, tamenne, iudices, haec ad breve tempus audita longinqui temporis cognitarum rerum fidem derogabunt? igitur hunc ordinem defensor quem fugit inimicus, et accusatorem urgebo atque insequar et ultro crimen ab adversario flagitabo. est, Laeli? num quid ea d … d … ea … f … no qui quidem non in umbra neque in illius aetatis disciplinis artibusque versatus est? puer cum patre consule ad bellum est profectus. etiam hoc ipso nomine aliquid … ia sus … Fragmenta Scholiastae Bobiensis
vi. si neque Asiae luxuries infirmissimum tempus aetatis …
vii. hoc aetatis gradu se ad exercitum C. Flacci patrui contulit.
viii. militaris cum P. Servilio, gravissimo et sanctissimo cive, profectus.
ix. amplissimis iudiciis ornatus quaestor factus est.
x. M. Pisone, qui cognomen frugalitatis, nisi accepisset, ipse peperisset.
xi. novum bellum suscepit atque confecit.
xii. Asiae testibus, sed accusatoribus contubernalibus traditus.

[¶4] 6. With what charges, then, O Laelius, do you attack my client being such a man as he is? He was in Cilicia a military tribune when Publius Servilius was the general; not a word is said about that. He was quaestor to Marcus Piso in Spain; not a word has been uttered about his quaestorship. He was present at the greater part of the Cretan war, and went through all its hardships in the company of that consummate general. The accusation is dumb with regard to this period. His discharge of his duties as judge during his praetorship,—a business of great intricacy, and affording numberless causes for suspicion and enmities, is not touched. Nay more, though it fell in a most critical and perilous time of the republic, it is praised even by his enemies. “Oh, but damaging evidence has been given against him.” Before I say by whom it was given, by what hopes, by what violence, by what means the witnesses were urged on, and what insignificant, needy, treacherous, audacious men they were, I will speak of their whole class, and of the condition in which all of us are placed. In the name of the immortal gods, O judges, will you ask of unknown witnesses in what way the man decided trials in Asia, who the year before had sat as judge at Rome? And will you yourselves form no conjectures on the subject? In a jurisdiction so various, many decrees were issued,—many desires of influential men were set at nought; and yet, what words, (I will not say of suspicion, for that is often false, but) of anger or indignation were ever once uttered against him?

> Latin: 6. igitur virum, Laeli, quibus tandem rebus oppugnas? P. Servilio imperatore in Cilicia tribunus militum; ea res siletur. M. Pisoni quaestor in Hispania; vox de quaestura missa nulla est. Cretense ex magna parte gessit atque una cum summo imperatore sustinuit; muta est huius temporis accusatio. iuris dictio, res varia et multiplex ad suspiciones et simultates, non attingitur. vero in summo et periculosissimo rei publicae tempore etiam ab inimicis eadem praetura laudatur. a testibus laeditur. quam dico a quibus, qua spe, qua vi, qua re concitatis, qua levitate, qua egestate, qua perfidia, qua audacia praeditis, dicam de genere universo et de condicione omnium nostrum. deos immortalis! iudices, vos, quo modo is qui anno ante Romae ius dixerat anno post in Asia ius dixerit, a testibus quaeretis ignotis, ipsi coniectura nihil iudicabitis? ⟨Cum⟩ in tam varia iuris dictione tam multa decreta, tot hominum gratiosorum laesae sint voluntates, quae est umquam iacta non suspicio— quae tamen solet esse falsa—sed iracundiae vox aut doloris?

[¶5] 7. And is that man to be put on his trial for covetousness, who, when employed on a business affording numerous opportunities for such conduct, shunned all base gain,—who, in a city much given to evil speaking, and in an office surrounded with suspicion avoided, not only all accusation, but even a single hard name? I pass over points which I ought not to pass over that in his private affairs no covetous action, no eagerness about money matters, no sordid conduct in the management of his estate can be alleged against him. By what witnesses, then, can I refute these men except by you?

> Latin: 7. is est reus avaritiae qui in uberrima re turpe compendium, in maledicentissima civitate, in suspiciosissimo negotio maledictum omne, non modo crimen effugit? illa quae praetereunda non sunt, nullum huius in privatis rebus factum avarum, nullam in re pecuniaria contentionem, nullam in re familiari sordem posse proferri. igitur testibus ego hosce possum refutare nisi vobis?

[¶6] 8. Shall that villager from near Tmolus,—a man not only a stranger to us, but not even known among his own neighbours,—teach you what sort of a man Lucius Flaccus is, whom you yourselves have known to be most modest as a youth, whom our most extensive provinces have found to be a most conscientious man and whom our armies know by experience to be a thoroughly brave soldier and vigilant general, and of a lieutenant and quaestor most moderate; whom you yourselves, being witnesses on the spot of his conduct, have judged to be a thoroughly wise and consistent senator, a most upright praetor, and a citizen wholly devoted to the republic.

> Latin: 8. Tmolites ille vicanus, homo non modo nobis sed ne inter suos quidem notus, vos docebit qualis sit L. Flaccus? quem vos modestissimum adulescentem, provinciae maximae sanctissimum virum, vestri exercitus fortissimum militem, diligentissimum ducem, temperatissimum legatum quaestoremque cognoverunt, quem vos praesentes constantissimum senatorem, iustissimum praetorem atque amantissimum rei publicae civem iudicastis.

[¶7] 9. Will you then listen to others as witnesses on those points, respecting which you yourselves ought rather to bear witness to others? And what witnesses are they? In the first place, I will say that they are Greeks, (that is the case of them all.) Not that I, for my own part, would be more inclined than others to refuse credit to that nation; for if ever there was any one of our countrymen not averse to that race of men, and proving himself so by zeal and good-will, I think that I am that man, and that I was so even more when I had more leisure; but there are in that body many virtuous, many learned, many modest men, and they have not been brought hither to this trial. There are also many impudent, illiterate, worthless persons, and those I see here, impelled by various motives. But I say this of the whole race of Greeks; I allow them learning, I allow them a knowledge of many arts; I do not deny them wit in conversation, acuteness of talents, and fluency in speaking; even if they claim praise for other sorts of ability, I will not make any objection; but a scrupulous regard to truth in giving their evidence is not a virtue that that nation has ever cultivated; they are utterly ignorant what is the meaning of that quality, they know nothing of its authority or of its weight.

> Latin: 9. quibus vos aliis testes esse debetis, de eis ipsi alios testis audietis? quos testis? dicam, id quod est commune, Graecos; non quo nationi huic ego unus maxime fidem derogem. si quis umquam de nostris hominibus a genere isto studio ac voluntate non abhorrens fuit, me et esse arbitror et magis etiam tum cum plus erat oti fuisse. sunt in illo numero multi boni, docti, pudentes, qui ad hoc iudicium deducti non sunt, multi impudentes, inliterati, leves, quos variis de causis video concitatos. tamen hoc dico de toto genere Graecorum: tribuo illis litteras, do multarum artium disciplinam, non adimo sermonis leporem, ingeniorum acumen, dicendi copiam, denique etiam, si qua sibi alia sumunt, non repugno; testimoniorum religionem et fidem numquam ista natio coluit, totiusque huiusce rei quae sit vis, quae auctoritas, quod pondus, ignorant.

[¶8] 10. Where does that expression, “Give evidence for me, and I will give evidence for you,” come from? is it supposed to be a phrase of the Gauls, or of the Spaniards? It belongs wholly to the Greeks; so that even those who do not understand Greek know what form of expression is used by the Greeks for this. Therefore, when they give their evidence, remark with what a countenance, with what confidence they give it; and then you will become aware how scrupulous they are as to what evidence they give. They never reply precisely to a question. They always answer an accuser more than he asks them. They never feel any anxiety to make what they say seem probable to any one; but are solicitous only how to get out what they have got to say. Marcus Lurco gave evidence against Flaccus, being angry (as he said himself) because his freedman had been condemned by a decision of his involving infamy. He said nothing which could injure him, though he was eager to do so; for his conscientious regard to his oath prevented him. And yet with what modesty, with what trembling and paleness did he say what he did!

> Latin: 10. Vnde illud est: “da mihi testimonium mutuum”? num Gallorum, num Hispanorum putatur? istud Graecorum est, ut etiam qui Graece nesciunt hoc quibus verbis a Graecis dici soleat sciant. videte quo voltu, qua confidentia dicant; tum intellegetis qua religione dicant. nobis ad rogatum respondent, semper accusatori plus quam ad rogatum, numquam laborant quem ad modum probent quod dicunt, sed quem ad modum se explicent dicendo. Flacco dixit M. Lurco quod, ut ipse aiebat, libertus erat eius turpi iudicio condemnatus. dixit quod laederet eum, cum cuperet; impediebat enim religio; tamen id quod dixit quanto cum pudore, quo tremore et pallore dixit!

[¶9] 11. How ready to give evidence was Publius Septimius; how angry was he about some former trial, and about his steward: yet he hesitated; yet his scrupulousness was at times at variance with his anger. Marcus Caelius was an enemy to Flaccus, because, as Flaccus had thought it wrong for one publican to decide on the case of another publican, though the case was ever so evident he had been removed from the list of judges. And yet he restrained himself; and brought nothing into the court which could injure Flaccus except his own inclination to do so. If these men had been Greeks, and if our habits and principles had not had more influence than indignation and hostility, they all would have said that they had been plundered, and harassed, and stripped of their fortunes. When a Greek witness comes forward with a desire to injure a man, he does not think of the words of his oath, but of what he can say to injure him. He thinks it a most shameful thing to be defeated, to be detected, to allow his enemy's innocence to be proved. That is the contest for which he prepares himself; he cares for nothing beyond. Therefore, it is not the best men, nor the wisest, but the most impudent and talkative men who are selected as witnesses.

> Latin: 11. promptus homo P. Septimius, quam iratus de iudicio et de vilico! haesitabat, tamen eius iracundiae religio non numquam repugnabat. M. Caelius quod, cum in re manifesta putasset nefas esse publicanum iudicare contra publicanum, sublatus erat e numero recuperatorum, tamen tenuit se neque attulit in iudicium quicquam ad laedendum nisi voluntatem. si Graeci fuissent, ac nisi nostri mores ac disciplina plus valeret quam dolor ac simultas, omnes se spoliatos, vexatos, fortunis eversos esse dixissent. Graecus testis cum ea voluntate processit ut laedat, non iuris iurandi, sed laedendi verba meditatur; vinci, refelli, coargui putat esse turpissimum; ad id se parat, nihil curat aliud. non optimus quisque nec gravissimus, sed impudentissimus loquacissimusque deligitur.

[¶10] 12. But you, even in private trials about the most trifling matters, carefully weigh the character of a witness; even if you know the person of the man, and his name and his tribe, still you think it right to inquire into his habits. And when a man of our citizens gives his evidence, how carefully does he restrain himself, how scrupulously does he regulate all his expressions, how fearful is he, and anxious not to say anything covetously or angrily,— not to say one word more or less than necessary! Do you think that those Greeks are so too? men to whom an oath is a joke, evidence a plaything, your opinion of them a shadow, men who place all their credit and profit and reputation, and triumph telling the most impudent lies. But I will not spin out what I have got to say. Indeed, my speech would be interminable if I were to take it into my head to unfold the faithlessness of the whole nation in giving evidence. But I will come nearer home; I will speak of these witnesses whom you have brought forward.

> Latin: 12. autem in privatis minimarum rerum iudiciis testem diligenter expenditis; etiam si formam hominis, si nomen, si tribum nostis, mores tamen exquirendos putatis. autem dicit testimonium ex nostris hominibus, ut se ipse sustentat, ut omnia verba moderatur, ut timet ne quid cupide, ne quid iracunde, ne quid plus minusve quam sit necesse dicat! illos item putatis, quibus ius iurandum iocus est, testimonium ludus, existimatio vestra tenebrae, laus, merces, gratia, gratulatio proposita est omnis in impudenti mendacio? non dilatabo orationem meam; etenim potest esse infinita, si mihi libeat totius gentis in testimoniis dicendis explicare levitatem. propius accedam; de his vestris testibus dicam.

[¶11] 13. We have got a most zealous prosecutor, O judges, and an enemy in every respect violent and furious against us. I trust that he may be of great use to his friends and to the republic; but at all events, he has undertaken this case and this prosecution, as if he were impelled by some most extraordinary eagerness. What a company attended him while pursuing his investigations! company, do I say? rather, what an army! what profusion! what expense! what prodigality was there! And though these statements are of service to my case, still I do not make them without apprehension lest Laelius should think that I am seeking by my oration to make him talked about, or to excite odium against him, in a business which he has undertaken for the sole object of acquiring credit. Therefore, I will pass over all this part of the subject. I will only beg of you, O judges, if you have heard anything yourselves by common report and in ordinary conversation about force, and violence, and arms, and troops, to recollect it and to remember, because of the unpopularity of such conduct, that by this recent law, a certain number of companions has been fixed as the greatest number that ought to attend a man while prosecuting such an inquiry.

> Latin: 13. accusatorem nacti sumus, iudices, et inimicum in omni genere odiosum ac molestum; quem spero his nervis fore magno usui et amicis et rei publicae; sed certe inflammatus incredibili cupiditate hanc causam accusationemque suscepit. comitatus in inquirendo! dico; immo vero quantus exercitus! quae iactura, qui sumptus, quanta largitio! quamquam utilia sunt causae, timide tamen dico, quod vereor ne Laelius ex his rebus quas sibi suscepit gloriae causa putet aliquid oratione mea sermonis in sese aut invidiae esse quaesitum. hanc partem totam relinquam; tantum a vobis petam, iudices, ut, si quid ipsi audistis communi fama atque sermone de vi, de manu, de armis, de copiis, memineritis; quarum rerum invidia lege hac recenti ac nova certus est inquisitioni comitum numerus constitutus.

[¶12] 14. However, to say nothing of violence, what conduct is this? which, since it was adopted according to the privileges and customs of prosecutors we cannot impeach, but still we are compelled to complain if it. I mean, first of all, the making a statement which has been bruited abroad over all Asia, (different people having had regular districts assigned to them, in which they were to spread the report,) that Cnaeus Pompeius, because he is a most zealous enemy to Lucius Flaccus, had begged of Decimus Laelius, his father's and his own most intimate friend, to prosecute him on this charge, and that he placed at his disposal for the furtherance of this business, all his own authority, and influence, and resources, and riches. And this appeared all the more probable to the Greeks, because a little before they had seen Laelius in the same province with Flaccus, and on terms of great intimacy with him. And as the authority of Pompeius is great with every one, as indeed it ought to be, so especially is it predominant in that province which he has lately delivered from the war which pirates and kings were waging against it. He did this besides: those who did not wish to leave their homes he terrified with a summons to give their evidence; those who could not remain at home, he provided with a large and liberal sum for travelling expenses.

> Latin: 14. ut hanc vim omittam, quanta illa sunt quae, quoniam accusatorio iure et more sunt facta, reprehendere non possumus, queri tamen cogimur! primum quod sermo est tota Asia dissipatus Cn. Pompeium, quod L. Flacco esset vehementer inimicus, contendisse a Laelio, paterno amico ac pernecessario, ut hunc hoc iudicio arcesseret, omnemque ei suam auctoritatem, gratiam, copias, opes ad hoc negotium conficiendum detulisse. hoc veri similius Graecis hominibus videbatur quod paulo ante in eadem provincia familiarem Laelium Flacco viderant. Pompei autem auctoritas cum apud omnis tanta est quanta esse debet, tum excellit in ista provincia quam nuper et praedonum et regum bello liberavit. illa ut eos qui domo exire nolebant testimoni denuntiatione terreret, qui domi stare non poterant, largo et liberali viatico commoveret.

[¶13] 15. And thus this young man, full of ability, worked on the wealthy by fear, on the poor by bribes, on the stupid by leading them into mistakes; and by these means he extorted those beautiful decrees which have been read to you,—decrees which were not passed by any formal vote or regular authority, nor under the sanction of an oath, but carried by holding up the hand, and by the loud shouts of an excited multitude. O for the admirable customs and principles which we received from our ancestors, if we could but keep them! but somehow or other they have slipped through our fingers. For our ancestors, those wise and upright men, would not permit the public assembly to have any authority to make laws; they chose that whatever the common people decided, or whatever the burgesses wished to enact should be ordered or forbidden, after the assembly was adjourned, and after all the parts had been properly arranged, by the different ranks, classes, and ages, distributed in their tribes and centuries, after having listened to the advocates of the proposal on which the vote was to be taken, and after the proposal itself had been for many days before the people, and had had its merits inquired into.

> Latin: 15. adulescens ingeni plenus locupletis metu, tenuis praemio, stultos errore permovit; sic sunt expressa ista praeclara quae recitantur psephismata non sententiis neque auctoritatibus declarata, non iure iurando constricta, sed porrigenda manu profundendoque clamore multitudinis concitatae. O morem praeclarum disciplinamque quam a maioribus accepimus, si quidem teneremus! sed nescio quo pacto iam de manibus elabitur. enim illi nostri sapientissimi et sanctissimi viri vim contionis esse voluerunt; quae scisceret plebes aut quae populus iuberet, submota contione, distributis partibus, tributim et centuriatim discriptis ordinibus, classibus, aetatibus, auditis auctoribus, re multos dies promulgata et cognita iuberi vetarique voluerunt.

[¶14] 16. But all the republics of the Greeks are governed by the rashness of the assembly while sitting. Therefore, to say no more of this Greece, which has long since been overthrown and crushed through the folly of its own counsels; that ancient country, which once flourished with riches, and rower, and glory, fell owing to that one evil, the immoderate liberty and licentiousness of the popular assemblies. When inexperienced men, ignorant and uninstructed in any description of business whatever, took their seats in the theatre, then they undertook inexpedient wars; then they appointed seditious men to the government of the republic; then they banished from the city the citizens who had deserved best of the state.

> Latin: 16. Graecorum autem totae res publicae sedentis contionis temeritate administrantur. ut hanc Graeciam quae iam diu suis consiliis perculsa et adflicta est omittam, illa vetus quae quondam opibus, imperio, gloria floruit hoc uno malo concidit, libertate immoderata ac licentia contionum. Cum in theatro imperiti homines rerum omnium rudes ignarique consederant, tum bella inutilia suscipiebant, tum seditiosos homines rei publicae praeficiebant, tum optime meritos civis e civitate eiciebant.

[¶15] 17. But if these things were constantly taking place at Athens, when that was the first city, not only in Greece, but in almost all the world, what moderation do you suppose there was in the assemblies in Phrygia and Mysia? It is usually men of those nations who throw our own assemblies into confusion; what do you suppose is the case when they are by themselves? Athenagoras, that celebrated man of Cyme, was beaten with rods, because, at a time of famine, he had ventured to export corn. An assembly was summoned at the request of Laelius. Athenagoras came forward, and, being a Greek among Greeks, he said a good deal, not about his fault, but in the way of complaining of his punishment. They voted by holding up their hands. A decree was passed. Is this evidence? The men of Pergamus, having been lately feasted, having been a little while before glutted with every sort of present,—I mean, all the cobblers and girdle-makers in Pergamus,—cried out whatever Mithridates (who governed that multitude, not by his authority, but by fattening them up) chose. Is this the testimony of that city? I brought witnesses from Sicily in pursuance of the public resolution of the island. But the evidence that I brought was the evidence not of an excited assembly, but of a senate on its oath.

> Latin: 17. si haec Athenis tum cum illae non solum in Graecia sed prope cunctis gentibus enitebant accidere sunt solita, quam moderationem putatis in Phrygia aut in Mysia contionum fuisse? contiones illarum nationum homines plerumque perturbant; quid, cum soli sint ipsi, tandem fieri putatis? est virgis Cymaeus ille Athenagoras qui in fame frumentum exportare erat ausus. Laelio contio est. ille et Graecus apud Graecos non de culpa sua dixit, sed de poena questus est. manus; psephisma natum est. testimonium est? epulati, paulo ante omni largitione saturati Pergameni, quod Mithridates qui multitudinem illam non auctoritate sua, sed sagina tenebat se velle dixit, id sutores et zonarii conclamarunt. testimonium est civitatis? testis a Sicilia publice deduxi; verum erant ea testimonia non concitatae contionis, sed iurati senatus.

[¶16] 18. So that I am not now arguing against the reception of evidence; but you are to decide whether these statements are to be considered evidence. A virtuous young man, born in an honourable rank, and eloquent, comes with a most numerous and splendidly appointed train into a town of the Greeks. He demands an assembly. He frightens wealthy men and men of authority from opposing him by summoning them to give evidence; he tempts the needy and worthless by the hope of being employed on the commission, and by a public grant for the expenses of their journey, and also by his own private liberality. What trouble is it to excite artisans, and shopkeepers, and all such dregs of a city, against any man, and especially against one who has lately had the supreme authority there, and could not possibly be very popular, on account of the odium attached to the very name of supreme power?

> Latin: 18. re iam non est mihi contentio cum teste, vobis, iudices, videndum est, sintne haec testimonia putanda. bonus, honesto loco natus, disertus cum maximo ornatissimoque comitatu venit in oppidum Graecorum, postulat contionem, locupletis homines et gravis ne sibi adversentur testimoni denuntiatione deterret, egentis et levis spe largitionis et viatico publico, privata etiam benignitate prolectat. et tabernarios atque illam omnem faecem civitatum quid est negoti concitare, in eum praesertim qui nuper summo cum imperio fuerit, summo autem in amore esse propter ipsum imperi nomen non potuerit?

[¶17] 19. And is it strange that those men who abominate the sight of our faces, who detest our name, who hate our tax on pastures, and our tenths, and our harbour dues, more than death itself, should gladly seize on every opportunity of injuring us that presents itself? Remember, therefore, that when you hear decrees you are not hearing evidence; that you are listening to the rashness of the common people; that you are listening to the assertions of all the most worthless men; that you are listening to the murmurs of the ignorant, to the voice of an inflamed assembly of a most worthless nation. Therefore examine closely into the nature and motive of all their accusations, and you will find no reason for them except the hopes by which they have been led on, or the terrors and threats by which they have been driven … The cities have nothing in the treasury, nothing in their revenues.

> Latin: 19. vero est homines eos quibus odio sunt nostrae secures, nomen acerbitati, scriptura, decumae, portorium morti, libenter adripere facultatem laedendi quaecumque detur! Mementote igitur, cum audietis psephismata, non audire vos testimonia, audire temeritatem volgi, audire vocem levissimi cuiusque, audire strepitum imperitorum, audire contionem concitatam levissimae nationis. perscrutamini penitus naturam rationemque criminum; iam nihil praeter spem, nihil praeter terrorem ac minas reperietis.

[¶18] 20. There are two ways of raising money,—by tribute, or by loan. No lists of creditors are brought forward; no exaction of tribute is accounted for. But I pray you to remark how cheerfully they are in the habit of producing false accounts, and of entering in their accounts whatever suits them, forming your opinions by the letters of Cnaeus Pompeius to Hypsaeus, and of Hypsaeus to Pompeius. [The letters of Pompeius and of Hypsaeus are read.] Do not we appear to prove to you clearly enough, by the authority of these men, the profligate habits and impudent licentiousness of the Greeks? Unless, perchance, we suppose that those men who deceived Cnaeus Pompeius, and that too, when he was on the spot and when there was no one tempting them to do so, were likely now to be either timid or scrupulous, when Laelius urged them to bear witness against Lucius Flaccus in his absence.

> Latin: 20. … aerario nihil habent civitates, nihil in vectigalibus. rationes conficiendae pecuniae, aut versura aut tributo; nec tabulae creditoris proferuntur nec tributi confectio ulla recitatur. vero facile falsas rationes inferre et in tabulas quodcumque commodum est referre soleant, ex Cn. Pompei litteris ad Hypsaeum et Hypsaei ad Pompeium missis, quaeso, cognoscite. litterae Pompei et Hypsaei. vobis coarguere his auctoribus dissolutam Graecorum consuetudinem licentiamque impudentem videmur? Nisi forte qui Cn. Pompeium, qui praesentem, qui nullo impellente fallebant, eos urgente Laelio in absentem et in L. Flaccum aut timidos fuisse aut religiosos putamus.

[¶19] 21. But even suppose those documents were not tampered with in their own city, still what authority or what credit can they now have here? The law orders them to be brought to the praetor within three days, and to be sealed up with the seals of the judges; they are scarcely brought within thirty days. In order that the writings may not be easily tampered with, therefore the law orders that after they have been sealed up they shall be kept in a public office; but these are sealed up after they have been tampered with. What difference, then, does it make, whether they are brought to the judges so long after the proper time, or whether they are not brought at all? What shall we say if the zeal of the witnesses is in partnership, as it were, with the prosecutor? shall they still be considered witnesses? What then, is become of that expectation which ought to have a place in courts of justice? For formerly, when a prosecutor had said anything with bitterness and vehemence, and when the counsel for the defence had made a supplicatory and submissive reply, the third step expected was the appearance of the witnesses who either spoke without any partisanship at all, or else they in some degree concealed their desires. But what is the case here?

> Latin: 21. fuerint incorruptae litterae domi; nunc vero quam habere auctoritatem aut quam fidem possunt? lex ad praetorem deferri, iudicum signis obsignari iubet; tricesimo die vix deferuntur. corrumpi tabulae facile possint, idcirco lex obsignatas in publico poni voluit; at obsignantur corruptae. refert igitur tanto post ad iudices deferantur, an omnino non deferantur?? si testium studium cum accusatore sociatum est, tamenne isti testes habebuntur? Vbi est igitur illa exspectatio quae versari in iudiciis solet? antea, cum dixerat accusator acriter et vehementer, cumque defensor suppliciter demisseque responderat, tertius ille erat exspectatus locus testium, qui aut sine ullo studio dicebant aut cum dissimulatione aliqua cupiditatis. vero quid est?

[¶20] 22. They are sitting with the prosecutor; they rise up from the prosecutor's bench; they use no concealment; they feel no apprehension. Do I complain of where they sit? They come with him from his house, if they trip at one word, they will have no place to return to. Can any one be a witness, when the prosecutor can examine him without any anxiety and have not the slightest fear of his giving him any answer which he is unwilling to hear? Where, then, is the oratorical skill, which formerly used to be looked for either in the prosecutor or in the counsel for the defence? “He examined the witness cleverly; he came up to him cunningly; he scolded him; he led him where he pleased; he convicted him and made him dumb.”

> Latin: 22. Vna sedent, ex accusatorum subselliis surgunt, non dissimulant, non verentur. subselliis queror? una ex domo prodeunt; si verbo titubaverint, quo revertantur non habebunt. quisquam esse testis potest quem accusator sine cura interroget nec metuat ne sibi aliquid quod ipse nolit respondeat? Vbi est igitur illa laus oratoris quae vel in accusatore antea vel in patrono spectari solebat: “bene testem interrogavit; callide accessit, reprehendit; quo voluit adduxit; convicit et elinguem reddidit?”

[¶21] 23. Why need you ask a man questions, Laelius, who, even before you have pronounced the words “I ask you,” will pour out more assertions than you enjoined him before you left home? And why should I, the counsel for the defence, ask him questions, since the course to be taken with respect to witnesses is either to invalidate their testimony or to impeach their characters? But by what discussion can I refute the evidence of men who say “We gave,” and no more? Am I then to make a speech against the man, when my speech can find no room for argument? What can I say against an utter stranger? I must then be content with complaining and lamenting, as I have been some time doing, the general iniquity of the whole prosecution, and, in the first place, the whole class of witnesses; for that nation is the witness which is the least scrupulous of all in giving evidence. I come nearer;—I say that that is not evidence which you yourself call decrees; but that it is only the grumbling of needy men, and a sort of random movement of a miserable Greek assembly. I will come in still further,—he who has done it is not present; he who is said to have paid the money is not brought hither; no private letters are produced; the public documents have been retained in the power of the prosecutors. The main point of my argument concerns the witnesses. These men are living with our enemies, they come into court with our adversaries, they are dwelling in the same house with our prosecutors.

> Latin: 23. tu istum roges, Laeli, qui, prius quam hoc rogo dixeris, plura etiam effundet quam tu ei domi ante praescripseris? ego autem defensor rogem? aut oratio testium refelli solet aut vita laedi. disputatione orationem refellam eius qui dicit: “dedimus,” nihil amplius? hominem dicendum est igitur, cum oratio argumentationem non habet. dicam in ignotum? est ergo et deplorandum, id quod iam dudum facio, de omni accusationis iniquitate, primum de communi genere testium; dicit enim natio minime in testimoniis dicendis religiosa. accedo; nego esse ista testimonia quae tu psephismata appellas, sed fremitum egentium et motum quendam temerarium Graeculae contionis. etiam magis. gessit non adest, qui numerasse dicitur non est deductus; privatae litterae nullae proferuntur, publicae retentae sunt in accusatorum potestate; summa est in testibus; hi vivunt cum inimicis, adsunt cum adversariis, habitant cum accusatoribus.

[¶22] 24. Do you think that this is an examination and an inquiry into the truth, or an endeavour to fix a stain, and bring ruin upon innocence? for there are many things of such a sort, O judges, that even if they deserve to be neglected, as far as the individual whom they more immediately affect is concerned, are still to be dreaded, because of the state of facts of which they betoken the existence, and because of the precedents which they afford. If I were defending a man of the lowest rank, of no splendour of reputation, and recommended by no innocence of character, still, relying on the rights of common humanity and mercy, I should beg from citizens, on behalf of another citizen, that you would not give up your fellow-citizen and your suppliant to witnesses who are strangers to you; who are urged on to give their evidence; who are the companions, and messmates, and comrades of the prosecutor; to men who from their fickleness are Greeks, but who, as far as cruelty goes, are barbarians: I should entreat you not to leave posterity so dangerous a precedent for their imitation.

> Latin: 24. Vtrum hic tandem disceptationem et cognitionem veritatis, an innocentiae labem aliquam aut ruinam fore putatis? enim sunt eius modi, iudices, ut, etiam si in homine ipso de quo agitur neglegenda sint, tamen in condicione atque in exemplo pertimescenda videantur. quem infimo loco natum, nullo splendore vitae, nulla commendatione famae defenderem, tamen civem a civibus communis humanitatis iure ac misericordia deprecarer, ne ignotis testibus, ne incitatis, ne accusatoris consessoribus, convivis, contubernalibus, ne hominibus levitate Graecis, crudelitate barbaris civem ac supplicem vestrum dederetis, ne periculosam imitationem exempli reliquis in posterum proderetis.

## 2. Sections 25–49

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/cicero-pro-flacco/2/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/cicero-pro-flacco/2/#p-N

[¶0] 25. But when the interests of Lucius Flaccus are at stake, a man of whom I may say that the first man who was made consul of his family was the first man that was ever consul in this city; a man by whose valour the kings were banished, and liberty was established in this republic; a family which has endured to this time with a continued series of honours and commands, and of glorious achievements; and when Lucius Flaccus has not only not degenerated from this everlasting and well-attested virtue of his ancestors, but as praetor has especially devoted himself to the glory of asserting the liberty of his country, seeing that that was the especial glory and characteristic of his family,—can I fear lest any mischievous precedent be established in the case of this defendant when, even if he had committed any slight fault, all good men would think that they ought rather to connive at it?

> Latin: 25. cum L. Flacci res agatur, qua ex familia qui primus consul factus est primus in hac civitate consul fuit, cuius virtute regibus exterminatis libertas in re publica constituta est, quae usque ad hoc tempus honoribus, imperiis, rerum gestarum gloria continuata permansit, cumque ab hac perenni contestataque virtute maiorum non modo non degeneraverit L. Flaccus sed, quam maxime florere in generis sui gloria viderat, laudem patriae in libertatem vindicandae praetor adamarit, in hoc ego reo ne quod perniciosum exemplum prodatur pertimescam, in quo, etiam si quid errasset, omnes boni conivendum esse arbitrarentur?

[¶1] 26. That, however, I not only do not request, but I beg and entreat you, O judges, to scrutinise the whole case most vigilantly, with all your eyes, as they say. None of the charges will be found borne witness to with conscientiousness, or founded in truth, or extorted by indignation; but, on the contrary, you will see that it is all redolent of lust, passion, party spirit, bribery, and perjury.

> Latin: 26. quidem ego non modo non postulo, sed contra, iudices, vos oro et obtestor ut totam causam quam maxime intentis oculis, ut aiunt, acerrime contemplemini. religione testatum, nihil veritate fundatum, nihil dolore expressum, contraque omnia corrupta libidine, iracundia, studio, pretio, periurio reperientur.

[¶2] 27. Now that the universal cupidity of those men is ascertained, I will proceed to the separate complaints and charges of the Greeks. They complain that money was levied from the cities under the name of money for a fleet. And we admit, O judges, that that was done. But if this be a crime, the guilt must consist either in the fact that it was not lawful so to levy money; or in the fact that the ships were not wanted; or in the third alternative, that no fleet put to sea while he was praetor. That you may see that this levy was lawful, listen, I pray you, to what the senate decreed, when I was consul, in which it did not depart at all from the former decrees of many years running. [The resolution of the senate is read.] The next thing is for us to inquire whether there was need of the fleet or not. Is it then the Greeks or any foreign nations who are to be judges of this, or your praetors, your generals, your commanders-in-chief? I indeed think that in a district and province of that sort which is surrounded by the sea, dotted all over with harbours, and girt with islands, a fleet is requisite not only for the sake of protection, but as an ornament of the empire.

> Latin: 27. iam universa istorum cognita cupiditate accedam ad singulas querelas criminationesque Graecorum. nomine pecuniam civitatibus imperatam queruntur. nos factum, iudices, confitemur. si hoc crimen est, aut in eo est quod non licuerit imperare, aut in eo quod non opus fuerit navibus, aut in eo quod nulla hoc praetore classis navigarit. ut intellegas, cognosce quid me consule senatus decreverit, cum quidem nihil a superioribus continuorum annorum decretis discesserit. senatvs consvltvm. est ergo ut opus fuerit classe necne quaeramus. Vtrum igitur hoc Graeci statuent aut ullae exterae nationes, an nostri praetores, nostri duces, nostri imperatores? existimo in eius modi regione atque provincia quae mari cincta, portibus distincta, insulis circumdata esset, non solum praesidi sed etiam ornandi imperi causa navigandum fuisse.

[¶3] 28. For there were these principles and there was this greatness of mind in our ancestors, that while in their private affairs, and as to their own personal expenses, they lived contented with a little, and without the smallest approach to luxury; where the empire and the dignity of the state was concerned, they brought everything up to a high pitch of splendour and magnificence. For in a man's private affairs he desires the credit of moderation, but in public affairs dignity is the object aimed at. But even if he had a fleet for the sake of protection, who will be so unjust as to blame it?—“There were no pirates.” What? who could certify beforehand that there would be none? “You are taking away,” said he, “from the glory of Pompeius.”

> Latin: 28. enim ratio ac magnitudo animorum in maioribus nostris fuit ut, cum in privatis rebus suisque sumptibus minimo contenti tenuissimo cultu viverent, in imperio atque in publica dignitate omnia ad gloriam splendoremque revocarent. enim in re domestica continentiae laus, in publica dignitatis. si etiam praesidi causa classem habuit, quis erit tam iniquus qui reprehendat? “erant praedones.”? nullos fore quis praestare poterat? “,” inquit, “gloriam Pompei.” tu auges molestiam.

[¶4] 29. Say, rather, that you yourself are increasing his difficulties. For he destroyed the fleets of the pirates, their cities, and harbours, and places of refuge. By his surpassing valour and incredible rapidity of motion he established a maritime peace; but this he neither undertook nor ought to have undertaken,—namely, to submit to appear worthy of prosecution if a single pirate's boat was anywhere seen. Therefore he himself in Asia, when he had terminated every war, both by land and sea, nevertheless levied a fleet on those self-same cities. And if he then thought that step was necessary, when everything might have been safe and tranquil through fear of his name, while he was still in those countries, what do you think that Flaccus ought to have decided on and to have done after he had departed?

> Latin: 29. enim classis praedonum, urbis, portus, receptacula sustulit, pacem maritimam summa virtute atque incredibili celeritate confecit; illud vero neque suscepit neque suscipere debuit ut, si qua uspiam navicula praedonum apparuisset, accusandus videretur. ipse in Asia, cum omnia iam bella terra marique confecisset, classem tamen isdem istis civitatibus imperavit. si tum statuit opus esse cum ipsius praesentis nomine tuta omnia et pacata esse poterant, quid, cum ille decessisset, Flacco existimatis statuendum et faciendum fuisse?

[¶5] 30. What? did not we decree, by the advice of Pompeius himself, in the consulship of Silanus and Murena, that a fleet should put to sea to sail round Italy? Did not we, at the very same time that Lucius Flaccus was levying sailors in Asia, exact four millions three hundred thousand sesterces for fleets to defend the Mediterranean and Adriatic? What did we do the year after? was not money exacted for the use of the fleet when Marcus Curius and Publius Sextilius were quaestors? What? were there not all this time cavalry on the sea-coast? for that is the surpassing glory of Pompeius,—first of all, that those pirates who, when the conduct of the maritime war was first entrusted to him, wandered about straggling over the whole sea, were soon reduced under our power; in the next place, that Syria is ours, that Cilicia is occupied by us, that Cyprus, through the instrumentality of king Ptolemaeus, is reduced to a state in which it can venture to do nothing; moreover, that Crete, owing to the valour of Metellus, is ours; that the pirates have now no ports from which they can set out none to which they can return; that all the bays, and promontories, and shores, and islands, and maritime cities, are now contained within the barriers of our empire.

> Latin: 30. ? nos hic nonne ipso Pompeio auctore Silano et Murena consulibus decrevimus ut classis in Italia navigaret? nonne eo ipso tempore cum L. Flaccus in Asia remiges imperabat, nos hic in mare superum et inferum sestertium ter et quadragiens erogabamus?? postero anno nonne M. Curtio et P. Sextilio quaestoribus pecunia in classem est erogata?? hoc omni tempore equites in ora maritima non fuerunt? enim est gloria divina Pompei, primum praedones eos qui tum cum illi bellum maritimum gerendum datum est toto mari dispersi vagabantur redactos esse omnis in ⟨populi Romani⟩ potestatem, deinde Syriam esse nostram, Ciliciam teneri, Cyprum per Ptolomaeum regem nihil audere, praeterea Cretam Metelli virtute esse nostram, nihil esse unde proficiscantur, nihil quo revertantur, omnis sinus, promunturia, litora, insulas, urbis maritimas claustris imperi nostri contineri.

[¶6] 31. But if, when Flaccus was praetor, there had been not one pirate at sea, still his diligence would not have deserved to be blamed. For I should think that the reason of there being no pirates at sea was, because he had a fleet. What will you say if I prove by the evidence of Lucius Oppius, of Lucius Agrius, of Caius Cestius, Roman knights, and also of this most industrious man here present, Cnaeus Domitius, who was an ambassador in Asia at the time, that at that very time in which you yourself affirm that there was no need of a fleet, numbers of men were taken prisoners by the pirates? Still, will the wisdom of Flaccus, as shown in raising crews for the fleet, be found fault with? What if a man of high rank, a citizen of Adramyttium, was even slain by the pirates,—a man whose name is known to nearly all of us, Atyanas the boxer, a victor at Olympia? and this victory is considered among the Greeks (since we are speaking of their wisdom) a greater and more glorious thing than to have had a triumph is reckoned at Rome. “But you took no prisoners.” How many most illustrious men have had the command of the sea-coast, who, though they had taken no pirate prisoner, still made the sea safe? For taking prisoners depends on chance, on place, on accident, on opportunity. And the caution which shows itself in defence has an easy task; being aided not only by lurking places in concealed spots, but by the sudden fall or change of winds and weather.

> Latin: 31. si Flacco praetore nemo in mari praedo fuisset, tamen huius diligentia reprehendenda non esset. enim quod hic classem habuisset, existimarem non fuisse.? si L. Eppi, L. Agri, C. Cesti, equitum Romanorum, huius etiam clarissimi viri, Cn. Domiti, qui in Asia tum legatus fuit, testimonio doceo eo ipso tempore quo tu negas classem habendam fuisse, compluris a praedonibus esse captos, tamen Flacci consilium in remigibus imperandis reprehendetur? si etiam occisus est a piratis Adramytenus homo nobilis, cuius est fere nobis omnibus nomen auditum, Atyanas pugil Olympionices? hoc est apud Graecos, quoniam de eorum gravitate dicimus, prope maius et gloriosius quam Romae triumphasse. “neminem cepisti.” multi orae maritimae clarissimi viri praefuerunt qui, cum praedonem nullum cepissent, mare tamen tutum praestiterunt! Casus est enim in capiendo, locus, ventus, occasio; defendendi facilis est cautio, non solum latibulis occultorum locorum sed etiam tempestatum moderatione et conversione.

[¶7] 32. The last thing that we have to inquire into is, whether that fleet really sailed with oars and sails, or only on paper, and as far as the expense went. Can that then be denied, of which all Asia is witness, that the fleet was distributed into two divisions, so that one division should sail above Ephesus, the other below Ephesus? in the one fleet Marcus Crassus, that most noble man, sailed from Aenas to Asia, with the other division Flaccus sailed from Asia to Macedonia. In what then is it that we look in vain for the diligence of the praetor? Is it in the number of the ships or in the equal division of the expense? He demanded just one half the fleet which Pompeius required. Could he be more economical? And he divided the expense according to the proportions settled by Pompeius, which was adapted to the division made by Sulla, who, when he had arranged all the cities in Asia according to the proportion that they were to bear of the expense imposed on the whole provinces, adopted a rule which Pompeius and Flaccus followed in raising the necessary sums, and even to this day the whole sum is not collected. But he makes no return of it.

> Latin: 32. est ut quaeratur utrum ista classis cursu et remis, an sumptu tantum et litteris navigarit. id igitur negari potest, cuius rei cuncta testis est Asia, bipertito classem distributam fuisse, ut una pars supra Ephesum, altera infra Ephesum navigaret? classe M. Crassus, vir amplissimus, ab Aeno in Asiam, his navibus Flaccus ex Asia in Macedoniam navigavit. quo igitur praetoris est diligentia requirenda? in numero navium et in discriptione aequabili sumptus? eius quo Pompeius erat usus imperavit; num potuit parcius? autem pecuniam ad Pompei rationem, quae fuit accommodata L. Sullae discriptioni. cum ⟨in⟩ omnis Asiae civitates pro portione pecuniam discripsisset, illam rationem in imperando sumptu et Pompeius et Flaccus secutus est. est adhuc tamen ea summa completa.

[¶8] 33. What does he gain by that? for when he takes on himself the burden of having levied the money, he avows what you wish to have considered as a crime. How then can any one be induced to believe that by not returning an account of that money, he deserves to bring an accusation on himself, when there would be no crime at all in the business if he made the return? But you deny that my brother, who succeeded Lucius Flaccus, levied any money for the purpose of crews for the fleet. Indeed, I am delighted to hear this praise of my brother Quintus, but I am still more pleased at other and more important reasons for praise of him. He decided on a different course; he saw a different state of things. He thought that whenever any intelligence of pirates was received, he could get together a fleet as suddenly as he could wish. And lastly, my brother was the very first man in Asia who ventured to relieve the cities from this expense of furnishing crews. But it is usual to think that a crime, when any one establishes charges which had not been established before; not when a successor merely changes some of the charges established by his predecessors. Flaccus could not know what others would do after his time; he only saw what others had done.

> Latin: 33. “refert.”; quid lucretur? Cum enim onus imperatae pecuniae suscipit, id quod tu crimen esse vis confitetur. igitur probari potest in ea pecunia non referenda crimen sibi ipsum facere in qua crimen esset nullum, si referret? enim negas fratrem meum, qui L. Flacco successerit, pecuniam ullam in remiges imperasse. omni fratris mei laude delector, sed aliis magis gravioribus atque maioribus. quiddam statuit, aliud vidit; existimavit, quocumque tempore auditum quid esset de praedonibus, quam vellet subito classem se comparaturum. hoc primus frater meus in Asia fecit ut hoc sumptu remigum civitates levaret; crimen autem tum videri solet cum aliquis sumptus instituit eos qui antea non erant instituti, non cum successor aliquid immutat de institutis priorum. Flaccus quid alii postea facturi essent scire non poterat, quid fecissent videbat.

[¶9] 34. But some mention has been made of charges brought by the common consent of all Asia; I will now touch on the cases of individual cities—and of them, the first that I will speak of shall be the city of Aemon. The crier with a loud voice calls for the deputies from Aemon; one comes forward, Asclepiades. Let them come forward. Have you compelled even the crier to proclaim a lie? I suppose this one deputy is a man who can support the dignity of his city by his sole authority;—a man condemned by decisions involving the greatest infamy in his own city; stigmatised in the public records; of whose disgraceful acts, and adulteries, and licentiousness there are letters of the people of Aemon in existence; which I think it better to pass over, not only on account of their length, but on account of the scandalous obscenity of the language. He said that two hundred and six thousand drachmas had been given to Flaccus at the public expense. He only said so—he produced no confirmation of his statement, no proof; but he added this,—which most certainly he ought to have proved, for it was a personal affair of his own,—that he, as a private individual, had paid two hundred and six thousand drachmas. The quantity that that most impudent man says was taken from him was a sum that he never even ventured to wish to be the possessor of.

> Latin: 34. , quoniam de communi totius Asiae crimine est dictum, adgrediar iam ad singulas civitates; ex quibus sit sane nobis prima civitas Acmonensis. praeco voce maxima legatos Acmonensis. unus Asclepiades. Prodeant ⟨ceteri⟩. praeconem mentiri coegisti? enim, credo, is vir iste ut civitatis nomen sua auctoritate sustineat, damnatus turpissimis iudiciis domi, notatus litteris publicis; cuius de probris, adulteriis ac stupris exstant Acmonensium litterae, quas ego non solum propter longitudinem sed etiam propter turpissimam obscenitatem verborum praetereundas puto. publice data drachmarum ccvi. tantum, nihil ostendit, nihil protulit; sed adiunxit, id quod certe, quoniam erat domesticum, docere debuit, se privatim drachmarum ccvi dedisse. sibi ablatum homo impudentissimus dicit, tantum numquam est ausus ut haberet optare.

[¶10] 35. He says that he gave it as a contribution from Aulus Sextilius, and from his own brothers. Sextilius was able to give such a sum; as for his own brothers, they are partners in his beggary. Let us then hear what Sextilius says; then let his brothers themselves come forward; let them lie as shamelessly as they please, and let them say that they gave what they never possessed; still, perhaps, when they are produced face to face with us, they will say something in which they may be detected. “I have not brought Sextilius with me as a witness,” says he. Give me the accounts then. “I have not brought them down.” At least produce your brothers. “I never summoned them.” Are we then to fear as an accusation or as a piece of evidence, what Asclepiades by himself affirms, a man needy as to fortune, infamous as to character, condemned by every one's opinion, relying on his own impudence and audacity, without any account-books or any one to support his evidence?

> Latin: 35. A. Sextilio dicit se dedisse et a suis fratribus. dare Sextilius; nam fratres quidem consortes sunt mendicitatis. igitur Sextilium; fratres denique ipsi prodeant; quam volent impudenter mentiantur et, quod numquam habuerint, dedisse se dicant; tamen aliquid fortasse coram producti dicent in quo reprehendantur. “deduxi,” inquit, “Sextilium.” tabulas. “deportavi.” saltem exhibe. “denuntiavi.” ergo unus Asclepiades fortuna egens, vita turpis, existimatione damnatus impudentia atque audacia fretus sine tabulis, sine auctore iecerit, id nos quasi crimen aut testimonium pertimescamus?

[¶11] 36. He also said that the panegyric which we mentioned as having been given by the men of Aemon to Flaccus, is false; a panegyric, says he, which we ought to be glad to be without. For when that admirable representative of his city beheld the public seal, he said that his own fellow-citizens and all the rest of the Greeks were accustomed to seal at the moment whatever required it. Then take that panegyric to yourself. For the life and character of Flaccus do not depend on the evidence of the citizens of Aemon. For you grant to me, (an admission which this cause especially requires,) that there is no authority, no consistency, no firm wisdom in the Greeks, and, above all, no proper regard to truth in giving their evidence; unless, indeed, henceforward there is to be this distinction made between the evidence and your speech, that the cities are to be said to have allowed something to Flaccus when absent but are to appear to have neither written nor sealed anything suited to the occasion, so as to save Laelius, though he was present, though he himself undertook the management of the business himself, and though he alarmed them and threatened them, availing himself of the power of the law, of the privileges of a prosecutor, and of all his own private resources.

> Latin: 36. laudationem quam nos ab Acmonensibus Flacco datam proferebamus falsam esse dicebat. quidem laudationis iactura exoptanda nobis fuit. ut signum publicum inspexit praeclarus iste auctor suae civitatis, solere suos civis ceterosque Graecos ex tempore quod opus sit obsignare dixit. vero tibi habeto istam laudationem; nec enim Acmonensium testimonio Flacci vita et dignitas nititur. enim mihi quod haec causa maxime postulat, nullam gravitatem, nullam constantiam, nullum firmum in Graecis hominibus consilium, nullam denique esse testimoni fidem. Nisi vero hactenus ista formula testimoni atque orationis tuae describi ac distingui potest ut Flacco absenti aliquid civitates tribuisse dicantur, Laelio praesenti per se agenti vi legis, iure accusationis, opibus praeterea suis terrenti ac minanti nihil temporis causa scripsisse aut obsignasse videantur.

[¶12] 37. In truth, O judges, I have often seen important facts detected and discovered through mere trifles, as in the case of this Asclepiades. This panegyric, which has been produced by us, had been sealed with that Asiatic chalk which is known to nearly all of us; which all men use not only on public but also on their private letters, and which we every day see used in letters sent by publicans, and in letters addressed to each individual among us. Nor indeed did the witness himself, when he saw the seal, say that we were producing a forged document, but he alleged the worthless character of all Asiatics,—a matter which we willingly and easily grant to him. Our panegyric then,—which he says was given to us because of that particular occasion, and by so saying in fact allows was given to us,—was sealed with chalk. But on that evidence, which is said to have been given to the prosecutor, we saw the seal was wax.

> Latin: 37. in minimis rebus saepe res magnas vidi, iudices, deprehendi ac teneri, ut in hoc Asclepiade. quae est a nobis prolata laudatio obsignata erat creta illa Asiatica quae fere est omnibus nota nobis, qua utuntur omnes non modo in publicis sed etiam in privatis litteris quas cotidie videmus mitti a publicanis, saepe uni cuique nostrum. enim testis ipse signo inspecto falsum nos proferre dixit, sed levitatem totius Asiae protulit, de qua nos et libenter et facile concedimus. igitur laudatio, quam ille temporis causa nobis datam dicit, datam quidem confitetur, consignata creta est; in illo autem testimonio quod accusatori dicitur datum ceram esse vidimus.

[¶13] 38. Here, O judges, if I thought that you were influenced by the decrees of the Aemonensians, and by the letters of the rest of the Phrygians, I should cry out, and argue with all the vigour of which I was master. I should call to witness the publicans; I should invoke the traders; I should implore the aid of your own consciences: the wax being seen, I should feel sure that the audacious forgery of the whole evidence was evidently detected and discovered, and laid bare to you. But at present I will not triumph too violently, nor be too much elated at this, nor will I inveigh against that trifler as if he were a witness, nor will I allow myself to be moved at all with respect to any part of this testimony of the Aemonensians, whether it has been forged here, as appears likely on the face of it, or whether it can really been sent from Aemon, as it is said to have been. In truth, I will not fear the evidence of the men to whom I make over that panegyric, since, as Asclepiades says, they are utterly insignificant.

> Latin: 38. ego, iudices, si vos Acmonensium decretis, si ceterorum Phrygum litteris permoveri putarem, vociferarer et quam maxime possem contenderem, testarer publicanos, excitarem negotiatores, vestram etiam scientiam implorarem; cera deprehensa confiderem totius testimoni fictam audaciam manifesto comprehensam atque oppressam teneri. vero non insultabo vehementius nec volitabo in hoc insolentius neque in istum nugatorem tamquam in aliquem testem invehar neque in toto Acmonensium testimonio, sive hic confictum est, ut apparet, sive missum domo est, ut dicitur, commorabor. quibus ego laudationem istam remittam, quoniam sunt, ut Asclepiades dicit, leves, horum testimonium non pertimescam.

[¶14] 39. I come now to the evidence of the people of Dorylaeum, who, when they were brought into court said that they had lost their public documents near some caverns. O the shepherds (I know not who they were), the literary shepherds! if they took nothing from those men except the letters! But we suspect that there is some other reason, and that we should not think those men quite destitute of all cunning. There is, I imagine, a heavier penalty at Dorylaeum than among other people, for forging or tampering with written documents. If they had produced the genuine letters, there was no accusation in them; if they produced forged ones, there was a penalty for such an act. They thought the finest thing they could do was to say that they were lost.

> Latin: 39. nunc ad Dorylensium testimonium; qui producti tabulas se publicas ad perdidisse dixerunt. O pastores nescio quos cupidos litterarum, si quidem nihil istis praeter litteras abstulerunt! aliud esse causae suspicamur, ne forte isti parum versuti esse videantur. Poena est, ut opinor, Dorylai gravior quam apud alios falsarum et corruptarum litterarum. veras protulissent, criminis nihil erat, si falsas, erat poena. putarunt dicere amissas.

[¶15] 40. Let them be quiet then, and allow me to set this down as so much gain, said to turn to something else. They will not allow me to do so. For some one or other gives them a lift, and says that he, as a private person, had given him money. But this cannot possibly be endured. He who reads things from those public documents which have been in the power of the prosecutor, ought not to carry any weight with him; but, nevertheless, a formal trial appears to take place when the documents themselves, of whatever character they may be, are produced. But when a man, whom not one of you has ever seen, whom no living mortal has ever heard of only says, “I gave,” will you hesitate, O judges, to save a most noble citizen from this most unknown of Phrygians? And this very man was lately disbelieved by three honourable and worthy Roman knights, when in a case in which a man's liberty was at stake, he said that the man who was claimed was his own kinsman. How has it come about that the man who was not considered a trustworthy witness as to his own blood and family is a credible authority concerning a public injury?

> Latin: 40. igitur et me hoc in lucro ponere atque aliud agere patiantur. sinunt. enim iste nescio qui et privatim dicit se dedisse. vero ferri nullo modo potest. de tabulis publicis recitat eis quae in accusatoris potestate fuerunt non debet habere auctoritatem; sed tamen iudicium fieri videtur, cum tabulae illae ipsae, cuicuimodi sunt, proferuntur. Cum vero is quem nemo vestrum vidit umquam, nemo qui mortalis esset audivit, tantum dicit: “dedi,” dubitabitis, iudices, quin ab hoc ignotissimo Phryge nobilissimum civem vindicetis? huic eidem nuper tres equites Romani honesti et graves, cum in causa liberali eum qui adserebatur cognatum suum esse diceret, non crediderunt. hoc evenit ut, qui locuples testis doloris et sanguinis sui non fuerit, idem sit gravis auctor iniuriae publicae?

[¶16] 41. And when this Dorylaean was lately carried out to burial in the presence of a great multitude and numerous assembly of you, Laelius tried to excite odium against Lucius Flaccus by imputing his death to him. You are acting unjustly, O Laelius, if you think that it is our risk whether your comrades live or die; especially as I think that this instance proceeded from your own carelessness. For you gave a Phrygian, a man who had never seen a fig-tree, a whole basket of figs; and his death was to some extent a relief to you, for you lost a very voracious guest. But what good did it to Flaccus, as he was well enough till he came forward here, and who died after he had put out his sting and delivered his evidence? But that prop of your cause, Mithridates, was retained as a witness by us and examined two whole days; and, after he had said all that he wished, departed reproved, convicted, and broken down, and now walks about in a breastplate. That learned and sagacious man is afraid that Lucius Flaccus may burden himself with a crime, now that he cannot escape him as a witness; so that he, who, before the evidence was given, restrained himself when he might have got something by the deed, is likely now to add the guilt of an enormous crime to the charge of covetousness, which is only supported by false evidence. But since Quintus Hortensius has spoken at great length and with great acuteness concerning this witness, and respecting the whole charge which has reference to Mithridates, we, as we originally intended, will proceed to the other points.

> Latin: 41. hic Dorylensis nuper cum efferretur magna frequentia conventuque vestro, mortis illius invidiam in L. Flaccum Laelius conferebat. iniuste, Laeli, si putas nostro periculo vivere tuos contubernalis, praesertim cum tua neglegentia factum arbitremur. enim Phrygi qui arborem numquam vidisset fiscinam ficorum obiecisti. mors te aliqua re levavit; edacem enim hospitem amisisti; Flacco vero quid profuit? qui valuit tam diu dum huc prodiret, mortuus est aculeo iam emisso ac dicto testimonio. istud columen accusationis tuae, Mithridates, postea quam biduum retentus testis a nobis effudit quae voluit omnia, reprensus, convictus fractusque discessit; ambulat cum lorica; metuit homo doctus et sapiens, ne L. Flaccus nunc se scelere adliget, cum iam testem illum effugere non possit, et, qui ante dictum testimonium sibi temperarit, cum tamen aliquid adsequi posset, is nunc id agat ut ad falsum avaritiae testimonium verum malefici crimen adiungat. quoniam de hoc teste totoque Mithridatico crimine disseruit subtiliter et copiose Q. Hortensius, nos, ut instituimus, ad reliqua pergamus.

[¶17] 42. The principal man in stirring up all the Greeks,—he who is sitting with the prosecutors,—Heraclides of Temnos, a silly chattering fellow, but (in his own opinion) so learned, that he calls himself even their tutor, and so ambitious, that he salutes all of you and of us every day. Old as he is, he has not yet been able to get admission into the senate of Temnos; and he, the man who professes himself able to teach the art of speaking to others, has himself been convicted in some very discreditable trials.

> Latin: 42. est omnium Graecorum concitandorum, qui cum accusatoribus sedet, Heraclides ille Temnites, homo ineptus et loquax, sed, ut sibi videtur, ita doctus ut etiam magistrum illorum se esse dicat., qui ita sit ambitiosus ut omnis vos nosque cotidie persalutet, Temni usque ad illam aetatem in senatum venire non potuit et, qui se artem dicendi traditurum etiam ceteris profiteatur, ipse omnibus turpissimis iudiciis victus est.

[¶18] 43. Of similar good fortune was Nicomedes, who came with him as a deputy, who was not allowed to enter the senate on any terms, but had been convicted of theft, and of defrauding his partner. For Lysanias, the chief man of the deputation, obtained the rank of senator; but as he showed himself rather too much devoted to the riches of the republic, he was convicted of peculation, and lost his property and his title of senator. These three men tried to render the accounts of even our own treasury false. For they returned themselves as having nine slaves, when they had in reality come without one single companion. I see at the first framing of the decree Lysanias was present, he, whose brother's property was sold by public order during the praetorship of Flaccus, because he did not pay what he owed to the people. Besides him there is Philippus, the son-in-law of Lysanias; and Hermobius, whose brother also, by name Poles, was convicted of embezzling the public money.

> Latin: 43. Pari felicitate legatus una venit Nicomedes, qui nec in senatum ulla condicione pervenire potuit et furti et pro socio damnatus est. princeps legationis, Lysania, adeptus est ordinem senatorium, sed cum rem publicam nimium amplecteretur, peculatus damnatus et bona et senatorium nomen amisit. tres etiam aerari nostri tabulas falsas esse voluerunt; nam servos novem se professi sunt habere, cum omnino sine comite venissent. scribendo primum video adfuisse Lysaniam, cuius fratris bona, quod populo non solvebat, praetore Flacco publice venierunt. Philippus est, Lysaniae gener, et Hermobius, cuius frater Pollis item pecuniae publicae est condemnatus. se Flacco et eis qui simul essent drachmarum cciↄↄ iↄↄ dedisse.

[¶19] 44. These men say that they gave Flaccus and those who were with him fifteen thousand drachmas. I have to do with a most active city, and one which is an admirable hand at keeping its accounts; a city in which not a farthing can be disposed of without the intervention of five praetors, three quaestors, and four bankers, who are elected in that city by the burgesses. Of all that number not one has been brought hither as a witness; and when they return that money as having been given to Flaccus by name, they say that they gave him also a still larger sum, entered as having been given for the repair of a temple. But this is not a very consistent story; for either everything ought to have been kept secret or else everything ought to have been returned without any disguise. When they enter the money as having been given to Flaccus, naming him expressly, they fear nothing, they apprehend nothing. When they return the money as having been given for a public work, then all of a sudden those same men begin to be afraid of the very man whom they had despised before. If the praetor gave the money, as it is set down, he drew it from the quaestor, the quaestor from the public bank, the public bank derived it either from revenue or from tribute. All this will never be like a crime, unless you explain to me the whole business both with respect to the persons and to the accounts.

> Latin: 44. Cum civitate mihi res est acerrima et conficientissima litterarum, in qua nummus commoveri nullus potest sine quinque praetoribus, tribus quaestoribus, quattuor mensariis, qui apud illos a populo creantur. hoc tanto numero deductus est nemo. cum illam pecuniam nominatim Flacco datam referant, maiorem aliam cum huic eidem darent in aedem sacram reficiendam se perscripsisse dicunt, quod minime convenit. aut omnia occulte referenda fuerunt, aut aperte omnia. Cum perscribunt Flacco nominatim, nihil timent, nihil verentur; cum operi publico referunt, idem homines subito eundem quem contempserant pertimescunt. praetor dedit, ut est scriptum, a quaestore numeravit, quaestor a mensa publica, mensa aut ex vectigali aut ex tributo. erit istuc simile criminis, nisi hanc mihi totam rationem omni et personarum genere et litterarum explicaris.

[¶20] 45. Or, as it is written in this same decree, that the most illustrious men of the city,—men who had had the highest honours of the state conferred on them,—were circumvented by him while he was praetor, why are they not present in court or why, at all events, are they not named in the decree? For I do not suppose that Heraclides, who is pricking up his head, is the person here intended. For is he one of the most eminent of the citizens, when Hermippus brought him here for trial? a man who did not even receive his present commission to come on this deputation from his fellow-citizens by their voluntary choice, but who went all the way from Tmolus to solicit it? a man on whom no honour was ever conferred in his own city; and the only business which ever has been entrusted to him, is one which is usually entrusted to the most insignificant people. He, in the praetorship of Titus Autidius, was appointed guardian of the public corn. And when he had received money from Publius Varinius the praetor for this purpose, he concealed it from his fellow-citizens, and charged the whole of the expense to them. And after this was made known and revealed at Temnos, by letters which were sent thither by Publius Varinius, and when Cnaeus Lentulus, he who was the censor, the patron of the people of Temnos, had sent letters on the same subject, no one ever afterwards saw that man Heraclides at Temnos.

> Latin: 45. quod est in eodem decreto scriptum, homines clarissimos civitatis amplissimis usos honoribus hoc praetore circumventos, cur hi neque in iudicio adsunt neque in decreto nominantur? enim credo significari isto loco illum qui se erigit Heraclidam. Vtrum enim est in clarissimis civibus is quem iudicatum hic duxit Hermippus, qui hanc ipsam legationem quam habet non accepit a suis civibus, sed usque Tmolo petivit, cui nullus honos in sua civitate habitus est umquam, res autem ea quae tenuissimis committebatur huic una in vita commissa sola est? T. Aufidio praetore in frumento publico est positus; pro quo cum a P. Varinio praetore pecuniam accepisset, celavit suos civis ultroque eis sumptum intulit. postea quam Temni litteris a P. Varinio missis cognitum atque patefactum est, cumque eadem de re Cn. Lentulus, qui censor fuit, Temnitarum patronus, litteras misisset, Heraclidam istum Temni postea nemo vidit.

[¶21] 46. And that you may be thoroughly aware of his impudence, listen, I entreat you, to the cause which excited the animosity of this most worthless man against Flaccus. He bought at Rome a farm in the district of Cyme, from a minor whose name was Meculonius. Having made himself out in words to be a rich man,—though he had in reality nothing beyond the stock of impudence which you see,—he borrowed the money from Sextus Stola, one of our judges now present a man of the highest consideration, who is acquainted with the circumstances, and not unacquainted with the man; but who trusted him on the security of Publius Fulvius Veratius, a most unexceptionable man. And to pay this loan he borrowed money of Caius and Marcus Fufius, Roman knights, men of the highest character. Here, in truth, he caught a weasel asleep, as people say; for he cheated Hermippus, a learned man, his own fellow-citizen, who ought to have known him well enough; for on his security he borrowed money of the Fufii. Hermippus, without feeling any anxiety, goes away to Temnos, as he said that he would pay the Fufii the money which he had borrowed on his security, out of what he received from his pupils.

> Latin: 46. ut eius impudentiam perspicere possitis, causam ipsam quae levissimi hominis animum in Flaccum incitavit, quaeso, cognoscite. Cymaeum Romae mercatus est de pupillo Meculonio. Cum verbis se locupletem faceret, haberet nihil praeter illam impudentiam quam videtis, pecuniam sumpsit mutuam a Sex. Stloga, iudice hoc nostro, primario viro, qui et rem agnoscit neque hominem ignorat; qui tamen credidit P. Fulvi Nerati, lectissimi hominis, fide. cum solveret, sumpsit a C. M. Fufiis, equitibus Romanis, primariis viris. hercule “cornici oculum,” ut dicitur. hunc Hermippum, hominem eruditum, civem suum, cui debebat esse notissimus, percussit. enim fide sumpsit a Fufiis. Hermippus Temnum proficiscitur, cum iste se pecuniam quam huius fide sumpserat a discipulis suis diceret Fufiis persoluturum.

[¶22] 47. For he, as a rhetorician, had some rich men for pupils whom he was going to make as foolish again as they were when they came to him, (for they could acquire nothing from him, except an ignorance of every sort of learning;) but he could not infatuate any one to such an extent as to get him to lend him a single farthing. Therefore, having left Rome secretly, and cheated numbers of people by trifling loans, he came into Asia; and when Hermippus asked him what he had done about the bond given to the Fufii, he said that he paid the entire sum to the Fufii. In the mean time, not long afterwards, a freedman comes to Hermippus with letters from the Fufii. The money is demanded of Hermippus. Hermippus demands it of Heraclides; however, he himself satisfies the claim of the Fufii who are at a distance, and discharges the security which he had given. He then prosecutes Heraclides, in spite of all his fuming and shuffling, in a formal manner: the cause is tried before judges.

> Latin: 47. enim rhetor iste discipulos quosdam locupletis,quos dimidio redderet stultiores quam acceperat; neminem tamen adeo infatuare potuit ut ei nummum ullum crederet. cum Roma clam esset profectus multosque minutis mutuationibus fraudavisset, in Asiam venit Hermippoque percontanti de nomine Fufiano respondit se omnem pecuniam Fufiis persolvisse., neque ita longo intervallo, libertus a Fufiis cum litteris ad Hermippum venit; pecunia petitur ab Hermippo. Hermippus ab Heraclida petit; ipse tamen Fufiis satis facit absentibus et fidem suam liberat; hunc aestuantem et tergiversantem iudicio ille persequitur. A recuperatoribus causa cognoscitur.

[¶23] 48. Do not fancy, O judges, that the impudence of cheats and repudiators is not one and the same in all places. This man did the very same things which debtors here are in the habit of doing. He denied that he had ever borrowed any money at all at Rome. He asserted that he had actually never heard the name of the Fufii; and he attacked Hermippus himself, a most modest and virtuous man, an ancient friend and hereditary connection of my own, the most eminent and accomplished man in his city, with every sort of reproach and abuse. But after this voluble gentleman had delivered himself in that fashion with a prodigious rapidity of eloquence for some time, all of a sudden, when the evidence of the Fufii and the items of their claim were read, though a most audacious man, he got alarmed; through a most talkative one, he became dumb. Therefore, the judges at the first trial gave a decision against him, in a matter which certainly did not admit of much doubt. As he did not comply with their decision, he was given up to Hermippus and put in prison by him.

> Latin: 48. existimare, iudices, non unam et eandem omnibus in locis esse fraudatorum et infitiatorum impudentiam. eadem omnia quae nostri debitores solent; negavit sese omnino versuram ullam fecisse Romae; Fufiorum se adfirmavit numquam omnino nomen audisse; Hermippum vero ipsum, pudentissimum atque optimum virum, veterem amicum atque hospitem meum, splendidissimum atque ornatissimum civitatis suae, probris omnibus maledictisque vexat. cum se homo volubilis quadam praecipiti celeritate dicendi in illa oratione iactaret, repente testimoniis Fufiorum nominibusque recitatis homo audacissimus pertimuit, loquacissimus obmutuit. recuperatores contra istum rem minime dubiam prima actione iudicaverunt. Cum iudicatum non faceret, addictus Hermippo et ab hoc ductus est.

[¶24] 49. Now you know the honesty of the man and the value of his evidence, and the whole reason of his enmity to Flaccus. Having been released by Hermippus after having sold him a few slaves, he came to Rome from thence he returned into Asia, when my brother Quintus had succeeded Flaccus in that government and went to him and related his story in this manner, saying that the judges being compelled and put in fear by the violence of Flaccus had given a false decision against their will. My brother as became his impartiality and prudence, decreed that if he demurred to the previous decision, he was to give security to double the amount; and that if he said that they were compelled by fear at the first trial, he should have the same judges again. He refused this, and as if there had been no trial and no decision, he began on the spot to demand back from Hermippus the slaves which he himself had sold him. Marcus Gratidius, the lieutenant, before whom he went refused to give him leave to proceed with the action, but declared that he should adhere to the decision already given.

> Latin: 49. et honestatem hominis et auctoritatem testimoni et causam omnem simultatis. is ab Hermippo missus, cum ei pauca mancipia vendidisset, Romam se contulit, deinde in Asiam rediit, cum iam frater meus Flacco successisset. quem adiit causamque ita detulit, recuperatores vi Flacci coactos et metu falsum invitos iudicavisse. meus pro sua aequitate prudentiaque decrevit ut, si iudicatum negaret, in duplum iret; si metu coactos diceret, haberet eosdem recuperatores. et, quasi nihil esset actum, nihil iudicatum, ab Hermippo ibidem mancipia quae ipse ei vendiderat petere coepit. M. Gratidius legatus, ad quem est aditum, actionem se daturum negavit; re iudicata stari ostendit placere.

## 3. Sections 50–78

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/cicero-pro-flacco/3/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/cicero-pro-flacco/3/#p-N

[¶0] 50. A second time, as he had no place anywhere where he could remain, he betook himself to Rome. Hermippus, who never yields to his impudence, follows him hither. Heraclides demands from Caius Plotius, a senator, a man of the highest character, who had served in Asia as lieutenant some slaves, which he said he had sold under compulsion, at a time when an unjust decision had been given against him. Quintus Naso, a most accomplished man, who had been praetor, is appointed judge; and when he showed that he was going to give sentence in favour of Plotius, Heraclides left the judge, and abandoned the whole cause as if he had not had a fair and legal trial. Do I appear to you, O judges, to be dwelling too much on each individual witness, and not to be discussing the whole class of witnesses, as I originally intended?

> Latin: 50. iste, cui nullus esset usquam consistendi locus, Romam se rettulit; persequitur Hermippus, qui numquam istius impudentiae cessit. Heraclides a C. Plotio senatore, viro primario, qui legatus in Asia fuerat, mancipia quaedam quae se, cum iudicatus esset, per vim vendidisse dicebat. Q. Naso, vir ornatissimus, qui praetor fuerat, iudex sumitur. cum sententiam secundum Plotium se dicturum ostenderet, ab eo iudice abiit et, quod iudicium lege non erat, causam totam reliquit. vobis, iudices, videor ad singulos testis accedere neque, ut primo constitueram, tantum modo cum universo genere confligere?

[¶1] 51. I come now to Lysanias, of the same city,—your own especial witness, Decianus,—a man whom you, as you had known him at Temnos when a youth, since he had pleased you when naked, wished to be always naked. You took him from Temnos to Apollonia. You lent money to him while quite a youth, at great interest, having taken good security for the loan. You say that the securities have been forfeited to you, and to this day you detain them and keep them in your possession. And you have compelled this man to come forward to give evidence as a witness by the hope of recovering his paternal estate. And as he has not yet given his evidence, I am waiting to see what it is that he will state. For I know the sort of men that they are,—I know their habits, I know their licentious ways. Therefore, although I am certain what he is prepared to state, still I will not argue against it before he has stated it; for if I do, he will alter it all and invent something else. Let him, then, keep what he has prepared; and I will keep myself fresh for whatever statements he makes.

> Latin: 51. ad Lysaniam eiusdem civitatis, peculiarem tuum, Deciane, testem; quem tu cum ephebum Temni cognosses, quia tum te nudus delectarat, semper nudum esse voluisti. Temno Apollonidem; pecuniam adulescentulo grandi faenore, fiducia tamen accepta, occupavisti. fiduciam commissam tibi dicis; tenes hodie ac possides. Eum tu testem spe recuperandi fundi paterni venire ad testimonium dicendum coegisti; qui quoniam testimonium ⟨nondum⟩ dixit, quidnam sit dicturus exspecto. Novi genus hominum, novi consuetudinem, novi libidinem., etsi teneo quid sit dicere paratus, nihil tamen contra disputabo prius quam dixerit. enim convertet atque alia finget. ob rem et ille servet quod paravit, et ego me ad id quod adtulerit integrum conservabo.

[¶2] 52. I come now to that state to which I myself have shown great kindness and done many great services, and which my brother has shown the greatest attachment to and fondness for. And if that city had brought its complaints before you by the month of creditable and respectable men, I should be a little more concerned about it; but now what am I to think? Am I to think that the Trallians entrusted their cause to Maeandrius, a needy, sordid man, without honour, without character, without income? Where were the Pythodori, the Aetideni, the Lepisos, and the other men who are well known among us, and who are of high rank among their own people? where is their splendid and high-spirited display of the respectability of their city? Would they not have been ashamed, if they had been serious about this business, that Maeandrius should be called, I will not say their deputy, but even a Trallian at all? Would they ever have entrusted to this man as their deputy,—to this man as their public witness, Lucius Flaccus the hereditary patron of their city, whose father and ancestors had been so before him, to be ruined by the evidence of their city? This cannot be the fact, O judges; it never can be.

> Latin: 52. nunc ad eam civitatem in quam ego multa et magna studia et officia contuli, et quam meus frater in primis colit atque diligit. si civitas per viros bonos gravisque homines querelas ad vos detulisset, paulo commoverer magis. vero quid putem? Trallianos Maeandrio causam publicam commisisse, homini egenti, sordido, sine honore, sine existumatione, sine censu? Vbi erant illi Pythodori, Aetidemi, Lepisones, ceteri homines apud nos noti, inter suos nobiles, ubi illa magnifica et gloriosa ostentatio civitatis? esset puditum, si hanc causam agerent severe, non modo legatum sed Trallianum omnino dici Maeandrium? illi legato, huic publico testi patronum suum iam inde a patre atque maioribus, L. Flaccum, mactandum civitatis testimonio tradidissent? est ita, iudices, non est profecto.

[¶3] 53. I myself lately saw in some trial a Trallian witness of the name of Philodorus, I saw Parrhasius, I saw Archidemus, when this identical man Maeandrius came to me as a sort of attorney, suggesting to me what I might say, if I pleased, against his own fellow-citizens and his own city. For there is nothing more worthless than that fellow,—nothing more needy, nothing more infamous. Wherefore, if the Trallians employ him as the relater of their indignation, and the keeper of their letters, and the witness of their injuries, and the utterer of their complaints, let them lower their high tone for the future, let them restrain their high spirit, let them bridle their arrogance, let them confess that the best representative of their city is to be found in the person of Maeandrius. But if they themselves have always thought this man a man to be buffeted and trampled upon at home, let them cease to think that there is any authority in that evidence which there is no respectable person to father. But I will explain what the facts of the case really are, that you may know why that city was neither severe in attacking Flaccus, nor very anxious to defend him.

> Latin: 53. ego in quodam iudicio nuper Philodorum testem Trallianum, vidi Parrhasium, vidi Archidemum, cum quidem idem hic mihi Maeandrius quasi ministrator aderat subiciens quid in suos civis civitatemque, si vellem, dicerem. enim illo homine levius, nihil egentius, nihil inquinatius. re, si hunc habent auctorem Tralliani doloris sui, si hunc custodem litterarum, si hunc testem iniuriae, si hunc actorem querelarum, remittant spiritus, comprimant animos suos, sedent adrogantiam, fateantur in Maeandri persona esse expressam speciem civitatis. istum semper illi ipsi domi proterendum et conculcandum putaverunt, desinant putare auctoritatem esse in eo testimonio cuius auctor inventus est nemo. exponam quid in re ⟨sit⟩ ut quam ob rem ista civitas neque severe Flaccum oppugnarit neque benigne defenderit scire possitis.

[¶4] 54. The city was offended with him on account of the affair of Castricius; concerning the whole of which Hortensius has made a sufficient reply. Very much against its will, it had paid Castricius some money which had long been due to him. Hence comes all its hatred to Flaccus, and this is his whole offence. And when Laelius had arrived in that city among a set of angry men, and had re-opened their indignation with respect to Castricius by mentioning the subject, the chief men jumped up and left the place, and refused to be present in that assembly, and would not assist in carrying the decree, or in framing the deposition. And to such an extent was that assembly deprived of the presence of the nobles of the city, that Maeandrius was the chief of the chief men present; and it was by his tongue, acting like a sort of fan of sedition, that assembly of needy men was ventilated.

> Latin: 54. ei Castriciano nomine irata, de quo toto respondit Hortensius; invita solverat Castricio pecuniam iam diu debitam. totum odium, hinc omnis offensio. cum venisset Laelius ad iratos et illud Castricianum volnus dicendo refricuisset, siluerunt principes neque in illa contione adfuerunt neque istius decreti ac testimoni auctores esse voluerunt. Vsque adeo orba fuit ab optimatibus illa contio ut princeps principum esset Maeandrius; cuius lingua quasi flabello seditionis illa tum est egentium contio ventilata.

[¶5] 55. Therefore, now learn the justice of the grief and complaints of a city, a moderate city, as I have always considered it, and a worthy one, as the citizens themselves wish it to be thought. They complain that the money which was deposited amongst them, in the name of Flaccus's father,—money which had been collected from different cities,—has been taken away from them. At another time I will inquire of them what power Flaccus had in the matter. At present I only ask the Trallians, whether they say the money, which they complain has been taken from them, was their own,—was a contribution from the other cities for their use. I wish to hear this. We do not say so, says he. What then? We say that it was brought to us—entrusted to us in the name of Lucius Flaccus, the father of this man, for the days of festival and the games which were to be celebrated in his honour.

> Latin: 55. civitatis pudentis, ut ego semper existimavi, et gravis, ut ipsi existimari volunt, iustum dolorem querelasque cognoscite. pecunia fuerit apud se Flacci patris nomine a civitatibus, hanc a se esse ablatam queruntur. Alio loco quaeram quid licuerit Flacco; nunc tantum a Trallianis requiro, quam pecuniam ab se ablatam querantur, suamne dicant, sibi a civitatibus conlatam in usum suum. audire. “,” inquit, “dicimus.” igitur? “ad nos, creditam nobis L. Flacci patris nomine ad eius dies festos atque ludos.” tum?

[¶6] 56. What then? “This you had no right to touch.” Presently I will see to that; but first of all I will deal with this. A dignified, a wealthy, a noble city complains that it is not allowed to retain what does not belong to it. It says that it has been plundered, because it has not in its possession what never was its own. What can be said or imagined more shameless than this? A town was selected in which, above all others, the money contributed by all Asia for the honours of Lucius Flaccus should be deposited. All this money was transferred from the purpose of doing him honour, and employed in gainful traffic and usury. Many years afterwards it was recovered.

> Latin: 56. “te,” inquit, “capere non licuit.” id videro, sed primum illud tenebo. gravis, locuples, ornata civitas, quod non retinet alienum; spoliatam se dicit, quod id non habet quod eius non fuit. hoc impudentius dici aut fingi potest? est oppidum, quo in oppido universa pecunia a tota Asia ad honores L. Flacci poneretur. pecunia tota ab honoribus translata est in quaestum et faenerationem; recuperata est multis post annis.

[¶7] 57. What injury was done to the city? “But the city is very indignant at it.” I dare say. For the profit is wrenched from it contrary to its hopes, which had already been devoured in expectation. “But it complains;” and a most impudent complaint it is. For we cannot reasonably complain of everything at which we are annoyed. “But it accuses him in the severest language.” Not the city, but ignorant men do so, who have been stirred up by Maeandrius. And while on this topic I beg you over and over again to recollect how great is the rashness of a multitude,—how great the peculiar levity of Greeks,—and how great is the influence of a seditious speech in a public assembly. Even here, in this most dignified and well-regulated of cities, when the forum is full of courts of justice, full of magistrates, full of most excellent men and citizens,—when the senate-house, the chastiser of rashness, the directress in the path of duty, commands and surveys the rostra, still what storms do we see excited in the public assemblies? What do you think is the case at Tralles? is it the same as is the case at Pergamus? Unless, perchance, these cities wish it to be believed that they could more easily be influenced by one letter of Mithridates, and impelled to violate the claims of their friendship with the Roman people, and their own plighted faith, and all the rights and duties of humanity, than to injure by their evidence the son of a man whom they had thought it necessary to drive from their walls by force of arms.

> Latin: 57. civitati facta est iniuria? moleste fert civitas.; avolsum est enim praeter spem quod erat spe devoratum lucrum. queritur. facit; non enim omnia quae dolemus, eadem queri iure possumus. accusat verbis gravissimis. civitas, sed imperiti homines a Maeandrio concitati. loco etiam atque etiam facite ut recordemini quae sit temeritas multitudinis, quae levitas propria Graecorum, quid in contione seditiosa valeat oratio., in hac gravissima et moderatissima civitate, cum est forum plenum iudiciorum, plenum magistratuum, plenum optimorum virorum et civium, cum speculatur atque obsidet rostra vindex temeritatis et moderatrix offici curia, tamen quantos fluctus excitari contionum videtis! vos fieri censetis Trallibus? an id quod Pergami? Nisi forte hae civitates existimari volunt facilius una se epistula Mithridatis moveri impellique potuisse ut amicitiam populi Romani, fidem suam, iura omnia offici humanitatisque violarent, quam ut filium testimonio laederent cuius patrem armis pellendum a suis moenibus censuissent.

[¶8] 58. Do not, then, oppose to me the names of those noble cities, for those whom this family has scorned as enemies, it will never be afraid of as witnesses. But you must confess, if your cities are governed by the counsels of your chief men, that it was not by the rashness of the multitude, but by the deliberate counsel of the nobles, that war was undertaken by those cities against the Roman people; or if that disturbance was at that time caused by the rashness of the ignorant mob, then permit me to separate the errors of the Roman people from the general cause.

> Latin: 58. re nolite mihi ista nomina civitatum nobilium opponere; quos enim hostis haec familia contempsit, numquam eosdem testis pertimescet. autem est confitendum, si consiliis principum vestrae civitates reguntur, non multitudinis temeritate, sed optimatium consilio bellum ab istis civitatibus cum populo Romano esse susceptum; sin ille tum motus est temeritate imperitorum excitatus, patimini me delicta volgi a publica causa separare.

[¶9] 59. “But he had no right to lay hands on that money.” Had his father Flaccus a right to touch it or not? If he had a right, as he undoubtedly had, to take money which had been contributed for the purposes of his honours, then the son did right in taking away the money belonging to his father from those men from whom he on his own account took nothing; but if the father Flaccus had not a right to take it, still after his death, not only his son, but any heir, must have had a perfect right to take it. And at that time, indeed, the Trallians, as they themselves had been for many years putting out that money at high interest nevertheless obtained from Flaccus all that they desired; nor were they so shameless as to venture to say what Laelius said,—namely, that Mithridates had taken this money from them. For who was there who did not know that Mithridates was more anxious about adorning Tralles than plundering it?

> Latin: 59. enim istam pecuniam huic capere non licuit. Vtrum voltis patri Flacco licuisse necne? licuit ⟨uti⟩, sicuti certe licuit, ad eius honores conlata, ex quibus nihil ipse capiebat, patris pecuniam recte abstulit filius; si non licuit, tamen illo mortuo non modo filius sed quivis heres rectissime potuit auferre. tum quidem Tralliani cum ipsi gravi faenore istam pecuniam multos annos occupavissent, a Flacco tamen omnia quae voluerunt impetraverunt, neque tam fuerunt impudentes ut id quod Laelius dixit dicere auderent, hanc ab se pecuniam abstulisse Mithridatem. enim erat qui non sciret in ornandis studiosiorem Mithridatem quam in spoliandis Trallianis fuisse?

[¶10] 60. And if I were to speak of these matters as they ought to be spoken of, I should, O judges, press more strongly than I have as yet done, the point of how much credit it was reasonable for you to give Asiatic witnesses. I should recall your recollections to the time of the Mithridatic war, to that miserable and inhuman massacre of all the Roman citizens, in so many cities, at one and the same moment. I should remind you of our praetors who were surrendered, of our ambassadors who were thrown into prison, of almost all memory of the Roman name and every trace of its empire effaced, not only from the habitations of the Greeks, but even from their writings. They called Mithridates a god, they called him their father and the preserver of Asia, they called him Evius, Nysius, Bacchus, Liber.

> Latin: 60. quidem a me si, ut dicenda sunt, dicerentur, gravius agerem, iudices, quam adhuc egi, quantam Asiaticis testibus fidem habere vos conveniret; revocarem animos vestros ad Mithridatici belli memoriam, ad illam universorum civium Romanorum per tot urbis uno puncto temporis miseram crudelemque caedem, praetores nostros deditos, legatos in vincla coniectos, nominis prope Romani memoriam cum vestigio ⟨omni⟩ imperi non modo ex sedibus Graecorum verum etiam ex litteris esse deletam. Mithridatem dominum, illum patrem, illum conservatorem Asiae, illum Euhium, Nysium, Bacchum, nominabant.

[¶11] 61. It was the same time, when all Asia shut its gates against Lucius Flaccus, the consul, and not only received that Cappadocian into their cities, but even spontaneously invited him. Let us be allowed, if not to forget these things, at least to be silent respecting them. Let me be allowed rather to complain of the inconstancy of the Greeks than of their cruelty. Are these two men to have influence with a people which they wished utterly to destroy? For whomsoever they could they slew while in the garb of peace; as far as depended on them they annihilated the name of Roman citizens. Shall they then give themselves airs in a city which they hate? among those people whom, if they had their will, they would not look upon? in that republic to the destruction of which it was their power that was unequal, and not their inclination? Let them behold this noble body of ambassadors and panegyrists of Flaccus who have come from the real honest Greece. Then let them weigh themselves in the balance, let them compare themselves with these men; then, if they dare, let them compare their dignity with that of these men.

> Latin: 61. Vnum atque idem erat tempus cum L. Flacco consuli portas tota Asia claudebat, Cappadocem autem illum non modo recipiebat suis urbibus verum etiam ultro vocabat. haec nobis, si oblivisci non possumus, at tacere, liceat mihi potius de levitate Graecorum queri quam de crudelitate; auctoritatem isti habeant apud eos quos esse omnino noluerunt?, quoscumque potuerunt, togatos interemerunt, nomen civium Romanorum quantum in ipsis fuit sustulerunt. hac igitur urbe se iactant quam oderunt, apud eos quos inviti vident, in ea re publica ad quam opprimendam non animus eis, sed vires defuerunt? hunc florem legatorum laudatorumque Flacci ex vera atque integra Graecia; tum se ipsi expendant, tum cum his comparent, tum, si audebunt, dignitati horum anteponant suam.

[¶12] 62. Athenians are here, citizens of that city from which civilization, learning, religion, corn, laws, and institutions are supposed to have arisen, and to have been disseminated over the whole earth—that city, for the possession of which there is said to have been, by reason of its beauty, a contest even among the gods: a city which is of that antiquity that she is said to have produced her citizens from her own womb, so that the same land is called the parent, and nurse, and country of her people. And she is of such authority that the name of Greece, now enfeebled and almost broken, rests upon the glory of this city.

> Latin: 62. Athenienses, unde humanitas, doctrina, religio, fruges, iura, leges ortae atque in omnis terras distributae putantur; de quorum urbis possessione propter pulchritudinem etiam inter deos certamen fuisse proditum est; quae vetustate ea est ut ipsa ex sese suos civis genuisse ducatur, et eorum eadem terra parens, altrix, patria dicatur, auctoritate autem tanta est ut iam fractum prope ac debilitatum Graeciae nomen huius urbis laude nitatur.

[¶13] 63. Lacedaemonians are here; men of that city, whose tried and glorious virtue is considered not only to be implanted in them by nature, but also to be fortified by discipline. The only men in the whole world who have been living for now seven hundred years and more under one system, and under laws which have never been altered. Many deputies are here from all Achaia, Boeotia, and Thessaly, places in which Lucius Flaccus has lately been in command as lieutenant under Metellus as commander-in-chief. Nor do I pass you over, O Marseilles, you who have known Lucius Flaccus as soldier and as quaestor,—a city, the strict discipline and wisdom of which I do not know whether I might not say was superior, not only to that of Greece, but to that of any nation whatever; a city which, though so far separated from the districts of all the Greeks, and from their fashions and language, and though placed in the extremity of the world and surrounded by tribes of Gauls, and washed with the waves of barbarism, is so regulated and governed by the counsels of its chief men, that there is no nation which does not find it easier to praise its institutions than to imitate them.

> Latin: 63. Lacedaemonii, cuius civitatis spectata ac nobilitata virtus non solum natura corroborata verum etiam disciplina putatur; qui soli toto orbe terrarum septingentos iam annos amplius unis moribus et numquam mutatis legibus vivunt. ex Achaia cuncta multi legati, Boeotia, Thessalia, quibus locis nuper legatus Flaccus imperatore Metello praefuit. vero te, Massilia, praetereo quae L. Flaccum ⟨tribunum⟩ militum quaestoremque cognosti; cuius ego civitatis disciplinam atque gravitatem non solum Graeciae, sed haud scio an cunctis gentibus anteponendam iure dicam; quae tam procul a Graecorum omnium regionibus, disciplinis linguaque divisa cum in ultimis terris cincta Gallorum gentibus barbariae fluctibus adluatur, sic optimatium consilio gubernatur ut omnes eius instituta laudare facilius possint quam aemulari.

[¶14] 64. Flaccus has these states as his panegyrists and as witnesses of his innocence, so that we may resist the covetousness of some Greeks by the assistance of others. Although, who is there who is ignorant, provided he has only taken the most ordinary trouble to make himself acquainted with these matters, that there are in reality three different races of Greeks; of which the Athenians are one, being considered an Ionic nation; the Aeolians are another; the third were called Dorians. And the whole of this land of Greece, which flourished so greatly with fame, with glory, with learning, and many arts, and even with wide dominion and military renown, occupies as you know, and always has occupied, but a small part of Europe. It surrounded the seacoast of Asia with cities after it had subdued it in war; not in order to increase the prosperity of Asia by fortifying it with colonies, but in order to keep its hold upon it by placing it in a state of siege.

> Latin: 64. utitur laudatoribus Flaccus,his innocentiae testibus, ut ⟨Graecorum cupiditati⟩ Graecorum auxilio resistamus. quis ignorat, qui modo umquam mediocriter res istas scire curavit, quin tria Graecorum genera sint vere? quorum uni sunt Athenienses, quae gens Ionum habebatur, Aeolis alteri, Doris tertii nominabantur. haec cuncta Graecia, quae fama, quae gloria, quae doctrina, quae plurimis artibus, quae etiam imperio et bellica laude floruit, parvum quendam locum, ut scitis, Europae tenet semperque tenuit, Asiae maritimam oram bello superatam cinxit urbibus, non ut victam coloniis illam constringeret, sed ut obsessam teneret.

[¶15] 65. Wherefore I beseech you, O you Asiatic witnesses, that, when you wish to recollect with accuracy what amount of authority you bring into a court of justice, you would yourselves describe Asia, and remember, not what foreigners are accustomed to say of you, but what you yourselves affirm of your own races. For, as I think, the Asia that you talk of consists of Phrygia, Mysia, Caria, and Lydia. Is it then a proverb of ours or of yours that a Phrygian is usually made better by beating? What more? Is not this a common saying of you all with respect to the whole of Caria, if you wish to make any experiment accompanied with danger, that you had better try it on a Carian? Moreover what saying is there in Greek conversation more ordinary and well known, than, when any one is spoken of contemptuously, to say that he is the very lowest of the Mysians? For why should I speak of Lydia? What Greek ever wrote a comedy in which the principal slave was not a Lydian? What injury, then, is done to you, if we decide that we are to adhere to the judgment which you have formed of yourselves?

> Latin: 65. ob rem quaeso a vobis, Asiatici testes, ut, cum vere recordari voletis quantum auctoritatis in iudicium adferatis, vosmet ipsi describatis Asiam nec quid alienigenae de vobis loqui soleant, sed quid vosmet ipsi de genere vestro statuatis, memineritis., ut opinor, Asia vestra constat ex Phrygia, Mysia, Caria, Lydia. Vtrum igitur nostrum est an vestrum hoc proverbium, “Phrygem plagis fieri solere meliorem”?? de tota Caria nonne hoc vestra voce volgatum est, “si quid cum periculo experiri velis, in id potissimum esse faciendum”? porro in Graeco sermone tam tritum atque celebratum est quam, si quis despicatui ducitur, ut “Mysorum ultimus” esse dicatur? quid ego dicam de Lydia? umquam Graecus comoediam scripsit in qua servus primarum partium non Lydus esset? ob rem quae vobis fit iniuria, si statuimus vestro nobis iudicio standum esse de vobis?

[¶16] 66. In truth, I think that I have said enough and more than enough of the whole race of witnesses from Asia. But still it is your duty, O judges, to weigh in your minds and thoughts everything which can be said against the insignificance, the inconstancy, and the covetousness of the men, even if these points are not sufficiently enlarged upon by me. The next thing is that charge about the Jewish gold. And this, forsooth, is the reason why this cause is pleaded near the steps of Aurelius. It is on account of this charge, O Laelius, that this place and that mob has been selected by you. You know how numerous that crowd is, how great is its unanimity, and of what weight it is in the popular assemblies. I will speak in a low voice, just so as to let the judges hear me. For men are not wanting who would be glad to excite that people against me and against every eminent man; and I will not assist them and enable them to do so more easily.

> Latin: 66. mihi iam satis superque dixisse videor de Asiatico genere testium; sed tamen vestrum est, iudices, omnia quae dici possunt in hominum levitatem, inconstantiam, cupiditatem, etiam si a me minus dicuntur, vestris animis et cogitatione comprendere. auri illa invidia Iudaici. nimirum est illud quod non longe a gradibus Aureliis haec causa dicitur. hoc crimen hic locus abs te, Laeli, atque illa turba quaesita est; scis quanta sit manus, quanta concordia, quantum valeat in contionibus. submissa voce agam tantum ut iudices audiant; neque enim desunt qui istos in me atque in optimum quemque incitent; quos ego, quo id facilius faciant, non adiuvabo.

[¶17] 67. As gold, under pretence of being given to the Jews, was accustomed every year to be exported out of Italy and all the provinces to Jerusalem, Flaccus issued an edict establishing a law that it should not be lawful for gold to be exported out of Asia. And who is there, O judges, who cannot honestly praise this measure? The senate had often decided, and when I was consul it came to a most solemn resolution that gold ought not to be exported. But to resist this barbarous superstition were an act of dignity, to despise the multitude of Jews, which at times was most unruly in the assemblies in defence of the interests of the republic, was an act of the greatest wisdom. “But Cnaeus Pompeius, after he had taken Jerusalem, though he was a conqueror, touched nothing which was in that temple.”

> Latin: 67. Cum aurum Iudaeorum nomine quotannis ex Italia et ex omnibus nostris provinciis Hierosolymam exportari soleret, Flaccus sanxit edicto ne ex Asia exportari liceret. est, iudices, qui hoc non vere laudare possit? aurum non oportere cum saepe antea senatus tum me consule gravissime iudicavit. autem barbarae superstitioni resistere severitatis, multitudinem Iudaeorum flagrantem non numquam in contionibus pro re publica contemnere gravitatis summae fuit. Cn. Pompeius captis Hierosolymis victor ex illo fano nihil attigit.

[¶18] 68. In the first place, he acted wisely, as he did in many other instances, in leaving no room for his detractors to say anything against him, in a city so prone to suspicion and to evil speaking. For I do not suppose that the religion of the Jews, our enemies, was any obstacle to that most illustrious general, but that he was hindered by his own modesty. Where then is the guilt? Since you nowhere impute any theft to us, since you approve of the edict, and confess that it was passed in due form, and did not deny that the gold was openly sought for and produced the facts of the case themselves show that the business was executed by the instrumentality of men of the highest character. There was a hundredweight of gold, more or less openly seized at Apamea, and weighed out in the forum at the feet of the praetor, by Sextus Caesius, a Roman knight, a most excellent and upright man; twenty pounds weight or a little more were seized at Laodicea, by Lucius Peducaeus, who is here in court, one of our judges; some was seized also at Adramyttium, by Cnaeus Domitius, the lieutenant, and a small quantity at Pergamus.

> Latin: 68. primis hoc, ut multa alia, sapienter; in tam suspiciosa ac maledica civitate locum sermoni obtrectatorum non reliquit. enim credo religionem et Iudaeorum et hostium impedimento praestantissimo imperatori, sed pudorem fuisse. Vbi igitur crimen est, quoniam quidem furtum nusquam reprehendis, edictum probas, iudicatum fateris, quaesitum et prolatum palam non negas, actum esse per viros primarios res ipsa declarat? Apameae manifesto comprehensum ante pedes praetoris in foro expensum est auri pondo c paulo minus per Sex. Caesium, equitem Romanum, castissimum hominem atque integerrimum, Laodiceae xx pondo paulo amplius per hunc L. Peducaeum, iudicem nostrum, Adramytii ⟨c⟩ per Cn. Domitium legatum, Pergami non multum.

[¶19] 69. The amount of the gold is known; the gold is in the treasury; no theft is imputed to him; but it is attempted to render him unpopular. The speaker turns away from the judges, and addresses himself to the surrounding multitude. Each city, O Laelius, has its own peculiar religion we have ours. While Jerusalem was flourishing, and while the Jews were in a peaceful state, still the religious ceremonies and observances of that people were very much at variance with the splendour of this empire and the dignity of our name and the institutions of our ancestors. And they are the more odious to us now because that nation has shown by arms what were its feelings towards our supremacy. How dear it was to the immortal gods is proved by its having been defeated, by its revenues having been farmed out to our contractors, by its being reduced to a state of subjection.

> Latin: 69. Auri ratio constat, aurum in aerario est; furtum non reprehenditur, invidia quaeritur; a iudicibus oratio avertitur, vox in coronam turbamque effunditur. Sua cuique civitati religio, Laeli, est, nostra nobis. Hierosolymis pacatisque Iudaeis tamen istorum religio sacrorum a splendore huius imperi, gravitate nominis nostri, maiorum institutis abhorrebat; nunc vero hoc magis, quod illa gens quid de nostro imperio sentiret ostendit armis; quam cara dis immortalibus esset docuit, quod est victa, quod elocata, quod serva facta.

[¶20] 70. Wherefore, since you see that all that which you wished to impute to him as a crime is turned to his credit, let us now come to the complaints of the Roman citizens. And let the first be that of Decianus. What injury, then, O Decianus, has been done to you? You are trading in a free city. First of all, allow me to be a little curious. How long shall you continue to live there as a trader, especially since you are born of such a rank as you are? You have now for thirty years been frequenting the forum,—the forum, I mean, of Pergamus. After a very long interval, if at any time is convenient to you to travel, you come to Rome. You bring a new face, an old name; Tyrian garments, in which respect I envy you, that with only one cloak you look so smart for such a length of time.

> Latin: 70. ob rem quoniam, quod crimen esse voluisti, id totum vides in laudem esse conversum, veniamus iam ad civium Romanorum querelas; ex quibus sit sane prima Deciani. tibi tandem, Deciane, iniuriae factum est? in libera civitate. patere me esse curiosum. usque negotiabere, cum praesertim sis isto loco natus? iam xxx in foro versaris, sed tamen in Pergameno. intervallo, si quando tibi peregrinari commodum est, Romam venis, adfers faciem novam, nomen vetus, purpuram Tyriam, in qua tibi invideo, quod unis vestimentis tam diu lautus es.

[¶21] 71. However, be it so. You like to practise commerce. Why not at Pergamus? at Smyrna? at Tralles? where there are many Roman citizens, and where magistrates of our own preside in the courts of justice. You are fond of ease: lawsuits, crowds, and praetors are odious to you. You delight in the freedom of the Greeks. Why, then, do you alone treat the people of Apollonides, the allies who of all others are the most attached to the Roman people and the most faithful, in a more miserable manner than either Mithridates, or than your own father ever treated them? Why do you prevent them from enjoying their own liberty? why do you prevent them from being free? They are of all Asia the most frugal, the most conscientious men, the most remote from the luxury and inconstancy of the Greeks; they are fathers of families, are content with their own, farmers, country-people. They have lands excellent by nature, and improved by diligence and cultivation. In this district you wished to have some farms. I should greatly prefer, (and it would have been more for your interest too, if you wanted some fertile lands,) that you should have got some here somewhere in the district of Crustumii, or in the Capenate country.

> Latin: 71. esto, negotiari libet; cur non Pergami, Smyrnae, Trallibus, ubi et multi cives Romani sunt et ius a nostro magistratu dicitur? te delectat, lites, turbae, praetor odio est, Graecorum libertate gaudes. ergo unus tu Apollonidensis amantissimos populi Romani, fidelissimos socios, miseriores habes quam aut Mithridates aut etiam pater tuus habuit umquam? his per te frui libertate sua, cur denique esse liberos non licet? sunt tota ex Asia frugalissimi, sanctissimi, a Graecorum luxuria et levitate remotissimi, patres familias suo contenti, aratores, rusticani; agros habent et natura perbonos et diligentia culturaque meliores. hisce agris tu praedia habere voluisti. mallem, et magis erat tuum, si iam te crassi agri delectabant, hic alicubi in Crustumino aut in Capenati paravisses.

[¶22] 72. However, be it so. It is an old saying of Cato's,—“that money is balanced by distance.” It is a very long way from the Tiber to the Caicus,—a place in which Agamemnon himself would have lost his way, if he had not found Telephus for his guide. However, I give up all that. You took a fancy to the town. The country delighted you. You might have bought it. Amyntas is by birth, by rank, by universal opinion, and by his riches, the first man of that state. Decianus brought his mother-in-law, a woman of weak mind, and tolerably rich, over to his side, and, while she was ignorant of what his object was, he established his household in the possession of her estates. He took away from Amyntas his wife, then in a state of pregnancy, who was confined with a daughter in Decianus's house, and to this very day both the wife and daughter of Amyntas are in Decianus's house.

> Latin: 72. esto; Catonis est dictum “pedibus compensari pecuniam.” omnino a Tiberi ad Caicum, quo in loco etiam Agamemnon cum exercitu errasset, nisi ducem Telephum invenisset. concedo id quoque; placuit oppidum, regio delectavit.. Amyntas est genere, honore, existimatione, pecunia princeps illius civitatis. socrum, mulierem imbecilli consili, satis locupletem, pellexit Decianus ad sese et, cum illa quid ageretur nesciret, in possessione praediorum eius familiam suam conlocavit; uxorem abduxit ab Amynta praegnantem, quae peperit apud Decianum filiam, hodieque apud Decianum est et uxor Amyntae et filia.

[¶23] 73. Is there any one of all these circumstances invented by me, O Decianus? —All the nobles know these facts—virtuous men are acquainted with them—our own citizens are acquainted with them—all the merchants of ordinary consequence are acquainted with them. Rise, Amyntas: demand back from Decianus, not your money, not your estates; let him even keep your mother-in-law for himself; but let him restore your wife, let him restore the daughter to her miserable father: for the limbs which he has weakened with stones, with sticks, with weapons, the hands which he has crushed, the fingers which he has broken, the sinews which he has cut through, those he cannot restore. The daughter,—restore the daughter, I say, O Decianus, to her unhappy father.

> Latin: 73. quid harum rerum a me fingitur, Deciane? haec omnes nobiles, sciunt boni viri, sciunt denique noti homines, sciunt mediocres negotiatores., Amynta, repete a Deciano non pecuniam, non praedia, socrum denique sibi habeat; restituat uxorem, reddat misero patri filiam. ⟨quidem⟩, quae debilitavit lapidibus, fustibus, ferro, manus quas contudit, digitos quos confregit, nervos quos concidit, restituere non potest; filiam, filiam inquam, aerumnoso patri, Deciane, redde.

[¶24] 74. Do you wonder that you could not get Flaccus to approve of this conduct? I should like to know who you did persuade to approve of it? You contrived fictitious purchases, you put up advertisements of estates in concert with some wretched women,—open frauds. According to the laws of the Greeks it was necessary to name a guardian to look after these matters. You named Polemocrates a hired slave and minister of your designs. Polemocrates was prosecuted by Dion for treachery and fraud on account of this very guardianship. What a crowd was there from all the neighbouring towns on every side! What was their indignation! How universal were their complaints! Polemocrates was convicted by every single vote; the sales were annulled, the advertisements were canceled. Do you restore the property? You bring to the men of Pergamus, and beg them to enter in their public registers, those beautiful advertisements and purchases of yours. They refuse, they reject them. And yet who were the men who did so? The men of Pergamus, your own panegyrists. For you appear to me to boast as much of the panegyric of the citizens of Pergamus, as if you had arrived at all the honours which had been attained by your ancestors. And you thought yourself in this respect better off than Laelius, that the city of Pergamus praised you. Is the city of Pergamus more honourable than that of Smyrna? Even the men of Pergamus themselves do not assert that.

> Latin: 74. Flacco non probasse te miraris?, quaeso, tandem probasti? falsas, praediorum proscriptiones cum aperta circumscriptione fecisti. his mulieribus Graecorum legibus ascribendus fuit; Polemocratem scripsisti, mercennarium et administrum consiliorum tuorum. est in iudicium Polemocrates de dolo malo et de fraude a Dione huius ipsius tutelae nomine. concursus ex oppidis finitimis undique, qui dolor animorum, quae querela! est Polemocrates sententiis omnibus; inritae venditiones, inritae proscriptiones. restituis? ad Pergamenos ut illi reciperent in suas litteras publicas praeclaras proscriptiones et emptiones tuas., reiciunt. qui homines? Pergameni, laudatores tui. enim mihi gloriari visus es laudatione Pergamenorum quasi honorem maiorum tuorum consecutus esses, et hoc te superiorem esse putabas quam Laelium, quod te civitas Pergamena laudaret. honestior est civitas Pergamena quam Smyrnaea?

[¶25] 75. I wish that I had leisure enough to read the decree of the Smyrnaeans, which they made respecting the dead Castricius. In the first place, that he was to be brought into the city, which is an honour not granted to others; in the next place, that young men should bear his coffin; and lastly, that a golden crown should be put upon the dead body. These honours were not paid to that most illustrious man, Publius Scipio, when he had died at Pergamus. But what language, O ye immortal gods, do they use concerning him, calling him “the glory of his country, the ornament of the Roman people, the flower of the youth.” Wherefore, O Decianus, if you are desirous of glory, I advise you to seek other distinctions. The men of Pergamus laughed at you.

> Latin: 75. ne ipsi quidem dicunt. tantum habere me oti, ut possem recitare psephisma Smyrnaeorum quod fecerunt in Castricium mortuum, primum ut in oppidum introferretur, quod aliis non conceditur, deinde ut ferrent ephebi, postremo ut imponeretur aurea corona mortuo. P. Scipioni, clarissimo viro, cum esset Pergami mortuus, facta non sunt. Castricium quibus verbis, di immortales! “decus patriae, ornamentum populi Romani, florem iuventutis” appellant. re, Deciane, si cupidus es gloriae, alia ornamenta censeo quaeras; Pergameni te deriserunt.

[¶26] 76. What? Did you not understand that you were being made sport of, when they read those words to you, “most illustrious man, of most extraordinary wisdom, of singular ability.” I assure you they were joking with you. But when they put a golden crown at the head of their letters, in reality they did not entrust you with more gold than they would trust to a jackdaw; could you not even perceive the neatness and facetiousness of the men? They, then,—those men of Pergamus,—repudiated the advertisements which you produced. Publius Orbius, a man both prudent and incorruptible, gave every decision that he did give against you. You received more favour from Publius Globulus, an intimate friend of mine. I wish that neither he nor I may repent it? … You add real causes of the enmity between you, that your father as tribune of the people prosecuted the father of Lucius Flaccus when he was curule aedile.

> Latin: 76. ? tu ludi te non intellegebas, cum tibi haec verba recitabant: “clarissimum virum, praestantissima sapientia, singulari ingenio”? crede, ludebant. Cum vero coronam auream litteris imponebant, re vera non plus aurum tibi quam monedulae committebant, ne tum quidem hominum venustatem et facetias perspicere potuisti? ⟨⟩ igitur illi Pergameni proscriptiones quas tu adferebas repudiaverunt. P. Orbius, homo et prudens et innocens, contra te omnia decrevit. P. Globulum, meum necessarium, fuisti gratiosior. Vtinam neque ipsum neque me paeniteret!

[¶27] 77. But that ought not to have been very annoying even to Flaccus's father himself; especially as he, who was prosecuted, was afterwards made praetor and consul, and the man who prosecuted him could not even remain in the city as a private individual. But if you thought that a reasonable ground for enmity, why, when Flaccus was military tribune, did you serve as a soldier in his legion, when by the military law you might have avoided the injustice of the tribune? And why did the praetor summon you, his hereditary enemy, to his counsels? And how sacredly such obligations are accustomed to be observed, you all know.

> Latin: 77. Flaccum iniuria decrevisse in tua re dicis; adiungis causas inimicitiarum, quod patri L. Flacco aedili curuli pater tuus tribunus plebis diem dixerit. istud ne ipsi quidem patri Flacco valde molestum esse debuit, praesertim cum ille cui dies dicta est praetor postea factus sit et consul, ille qui diem dixit non potuerit privatus in civitate consistere. si iustas inimicitias putabas, cur, cum tribunus militum Flaccus esset, in illius legione miles fuisti, cum per leges militaris effugere liceret iniquitatem tribuni? autem praetor te, inimicum paternum, in consilium vocavit? quidem quam sancte solita sint observari scitis omnes.

[¶28] 78. At present we are prosecuted by men who were our counselors. “Flaccus issued a decree.” Did he issue a different decree from what he ought? “against freemen.” Was it contrary to the resolution to which the senate had come? “He issued this decree against an absent man.” When you were in the same race, and when you refused to come forward, that is a different thing from being absent. [The resolution of the senate and the decree of Flaccus are read.]What next? suppose he had not made a decree, but had only issued an edict, who could have found fault with him with truth? Are you going to find fault with the letters of my brother, full of humanity and equity. The same letters which, having been given by me … Read the letters of Quintus Cicero. [The letters of Quintus Cicero are read.]

> Latin: 78. accusamur ab eis qui in consilio nobis fuerunt. “Flaccus.” aliud atque oportuit? “liberos.” aliter censuit senatus? “absentem.”, cum ibidem esses, cum prodire nolles; non est hoc in absentem, sed in latentem reum. senatvs consvltvm et decretvm Flacci.? si non decrevisset, sed edixisset, quis posset vere reprehendere? etiam fratris mei litteras plenissimas humanitatis et aequitatis reprehensurus ⟨es⟩? quas ea de muliere ad me datas apud … requisivit.

## 4. Sections 79–106

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/cicero-pro-flacco/4/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/cicero-pro-flacco/4/#p-N

[¶0] 79. What? did the people of Apollonides, when they had an opportunity, report these things to Flaccus? Were they not argued in court before Orbius? Were they not reported to Orbius? Did not the deputies of Apollonia report to our senate in my consulship all the demands which they had to make respecting the injuries which they had received from this one man, Decianus? “Oh, but you gave in an estimate of these farms also at the census.” I say nothing of their being other people's property; I say nothing of their having been got possession of by violence; I say nothing of the conviction by the Apollonidians that ensued; I say nothing of the business having been repudiated by the people of Pergamus; I say nothing of the fact that restitution of the whole was compelled by our magistrates; I say nothing of the fact that neither by law, nor in fact, nor even by the right of occupation, did they belong to you.

> Latin: 79. . litterae Q. Ciceronis.? haec Apollonidenses occasionem nacti ad Flaccum ⟨non⟩ detulerunt, apud acta non sunt, ad delata non sunt? senatum nostrum me consule nonne legati Apollonidenses omnia postulata de iniuriis unius Deciani detulerunt? haec praedia in censum dedicavisti. Mitto quod aliena, mitto quod possessa per vim, mitto quod convicta ab Apollonidensibus, mitto quod a Pergamenis repudiata, mitto etiam quod a nostris magistratibus in integrum restituta, mitto quod nullo iure neque re neque possessione tua;

[¶1] 80. I only ask this; whether those farms can be bought and sold by the civil law; whether they come under the provisions of the civil law, whether or no they are freehold, whether they can be registered at the treasury and before the censor? Lastly, in what tribe did you register those farms? You managed it so, that if any serious emergency had arisen, tribute might have been levied on the same farms both at Apollonides and at Rome. However, be it so; you were in a boastful humour. You wanted a great amount of land to be registered as yours, and of that land too, which cannot be distributed among the Roman people. Besides that, you were registered as possessed of' money in hand, cash to the amount of a hundred and thirty thousand sesterces. I do not suppose that you counted that money; but I pass over all these things. You registered the slaves of Amyntas; and, in that respect you did not wrong; for Amyntas is the owner of those slaves. And at first indeed he was alarmed when he heard that you had registered his slaves. He consulted lawyers. It was decreed by all of them that if Decianus could make other people's property his by registering it as such, he would have very great … You now know the cause of the enmity by which Decianus was excited to communicate to Laelius this grand accusation against Flaccus.

> Latin: 80. illud quaero sintne ista praedia censui censendo, habeant ius civile, sint necne sint mancipi, subsignari apud aerarium aut apud censorem possint. qua tribu denique ista praedia censuisti?, si tempus aliquod gravius accidisset, ut ex isdem praediis et Apollonide et Romae imperatum esset tributum. esto, gloriosus fuisti, voluisti magnum agri modum censeri, et eius agri qui dividi plebi Romanae non potest. es praeterea numeratae pecuniae cxxx. opinor tibi numeratam non esse abs te. haec omitto. es mancipia Amyntae neque huic ullam in eo fecisti iniuriam. enim ea mancipia Amyntas. primo quidem pertimuit, cum te audisset servos suos esse censum; rettulit ad iuris consultos. inter omnis, si aliena censendo Decianus sua facere posset, eum maxima habiturum esse. … … causam inimicitiarum, qua causa inflammatus Decianus ad Laelium detulerit hanc opimam accusationem.

[¶2] 81. For Laelius framed his complaint in this way, when he was speaking of the perfidy of Decianus: “He, who was my original informant; who communicated the facts of the case; whom I have followed, he has been bribed by Flaccus, he has deserted and abandoned me.” Have you, then, been the prime mover in bringing that man into peril of all his; fortunes, whose counselor you had been, with whom you had preserved all the privileges of your rank, a most virtuous man, a man born of a most noble family, a man who had done great services to the republic? Forsooth, I will defend Decianus, who has become suspected by you through no fault of his own.

> Latin: 81. ita questus est Laelius, cum de perfidia Deciani diceret: “qui mihi auctor fuit, qui causam ad me detulit, quem ego sum secutus, is a Flacco corruptus est, is me deseruit ac prodidit.” tu auctor tandem eum cui tu in consilio fuisses, apud quem omnis gradus dignitatis tuae retinuisses, pudentissimum hominem, nobilissima familia natum, optime de re publica meritum in discrimen omnium fortunarum vocavisti? licet, defendam Decianum, qui tibi in suspicionem nullo suo delicto venit.

[¶3] 82. Believe me, he was not bribed; for what was there which could have been got by bribing him? Could he have contrived for the trial to last longer? Why, the law only allows six hours altogether. How much would Decianus rather have taken away from those six hours, if he had wished to serve you. In truth, that is what he himself suspects,—you envied the ingenuity of your junior counsel. Because he discharged the part which he had undertaken with wit, and examined the witnesses cleverly, … But if this be probable, at all events it is not very probable that Decianus was bribed by Flaccus.

> Latin: 82. est, mihi crede, corruptus. enim fuit quod ab eo redimeretur? ut duceret iudicium? sex horas omnino lex dedit, quantum tandem ex his horis detraheret, si tibi morem gerere voluisset? illud est quod ipse suspicatur. ingenio subscriptoris tui; quod ornabat facile locum quem prehenderat, et acute testis interrogabat aut … fortasse fecisset ut tu ex populi sermone excideres, idcirco Decianum usque ad coronam applicavisti., ut hoc haud veri simile est Decianum a Flacco esse corruptum, ita scitote esse cetera, velut quod ait Lucceius, L.

[¶4] 83. And the rest of the case is just as improbable, as is what Lucceius says, that Lucius Flaccus had wished to give him two millions of sesterces to induce him to break his word. And do you accuse that man of avarice who you say was willing to abstain from taking two millions of sesterces? For when he was buying you, what was it that he was buying? Was it your desertion to his side? If you did come over to us, what share in the cause were we to give you? were we to allot to you the part of explaining the designs of Laelius? of saying what witnesses proceeded from his house? What? did not we ourselves see that they were living together? Who is there who does not know that? Is there the slightest doubt that the documents were in Laelius's power? or, was he bribing you not to accuse him with vigour and with eloquence? Now you give cause for suspicion; for you spoke in such a manner that some point or other does seem to have been carried with you.

> Latin: 83. Flaccum sibi dare cupisse, ut a fide se abduceret, sestertium viciens. eum tu accusas avaritiae quem dicis sestertium viciens voluisse perdere? quid emebat, cum te emebat? ut ad se transires? partem causae tibi daremus? ut enuntiares consilia Laeli? qui testes ab eo prodirent?? nos non videbamus? una? hoc nescit? in Laeli potestate fuisse? dubium est? ne vehementer, ne copiose accusares? facis suspicionem; ita enim dixisti ut nescio quid a te impetratum esse videatur.

[¶5] 84. “But a great and intolerable injury was done to Andrus Sextilius.” As, when his wife Valeria had died without a will, Flaccus managed the business in such a way as if the inheritance belonged to himself. And in that I should be glad to know what you find fault with,—is it, that he asserted anything which was false? How do you prove it? “She was,” says he, “a person of good family.” O man, learned in the law! What? cannot inheritances legally come from women of good family? “She was,” says he, “under the power of her husband.” Now I understand you; but was she so by use or by purchase? It could not be by use for legitimate guardianship cannot be annulled except by the consent of all the guardians. By purchase? Then it must have been with the consent of all of them; and certainly you will not say that that of Flaccus was obtained.

> Latin: 84. enim Sextilio gravis iniuria facta est et non ferenda, quod, cum esset eius uxor Valeria intestato mortua, sic egit eam rem Flaccus quasi ad ipsum hereditas pertineret. quo quid reprehendas scire cupio. falsum intenderit? doces? “,” inquit, “fuit.” O peritum iuris hominem!? ab ingenuis mulieribus hereditates lege non veniunt? “manum,” inquit, “convenerat.” audio; sed quaero, usu an coemptione? Vsu non potuit; nihil enim potest de tutela legitima nisi omnium tutorum auctoritate deminui.? ergo auctoribus; in quibus certe Flaccum fuisse non dices.

[¶6] 85. That alternative remains which he did not cease asserting loudly; “that Flaccus ought not, when he was praetor, to have attended to his own private concerns, or to have made any mention of the inheritance.” I hear, O Lucius Lucullus, that very great inheritances came to you, to you who are about to decide as judge on the case of Lucius Flaccus, on account of your exceeding liberality and of the great services which you had done your friends, during the time that you were governing the province of Asia with consular power. If any one had said that those inheritances belonged to him, would you have given them up? You, O Titus Vettius, if any inheritance in Africa comes to you, will you abandon it? or, will you retain it as your own, without being liable to the imputation of avarice, without any sacrifice of your dignity? “But the possession of the inheritance of which we are speaking was demanded in the name of Flaccus, when Globulus was praetor.” Well then, it was not any sudden violence, nor the idea of any favourable opportunity, nor force, nor any peculiarity of time, nor the possession of command and of the forces which induced Flaccus to commit this injury.

> Latin: 85. illud quod vociferari non destitit, non debuisse, cum praetor esset, suum negotium agere aut mentionem facere hereditatis. audio tibi, L. Luculle, qui de L. Flacco sententiam laturus es, pro tua eximia liberalitate maximisque beneficiis in tuos venisse hereditates, cum Asiam provinciam consulari imperio obtineres. quis eas suas esse dixisset, concessisses?, T. Vetti, si quae tibi in Africa venerit hereditas, usu amittes, an tuum nulla avaritia salva dignitate retinebis? istius hereditatis iam praetore Flacci nomine petita possessio est. igitur impressio, non vis, non occasio, non tempus, non imperium, non secures ad iniuriam faciendam Flacci animum impulerunt.

[¶7] 86. And, therefore, it is to this point that Marcus Lurco also, a most excellent man, and a great friend of mine, has especially addressed the sting of his evidence. He said, that it was not becoming for a praetor in his province to claim money from a private individual. Why, I should like to know, O Lurco, is it not becoming? It is not becoming to force or extort money, or to receive money contrary to the laws; but you will never convince me that it is not becoming to claim it, unless you can show that it is not lawful to do so. Is it right to accept of honorary lieutenancies for the sake of exacting what is one's due, as you yourselves have done lately, and as many good men have often done, (and I, indeed, find no fault with such conduct; I see that our allies complain of it;) and, do you think a praetor, if he, being in his province, does not abandon an inheritance which comes to him, is not only to be blamed but even to be condemned? “But Valeria,” says he, “had given up all her money as dower to her husband.” None of those assertions can be admitted, unless you prove that she was not under the guardianship of Flaccus. If she was, whatever money on her marriage was assigned to her husband without his consent, the assignment is null.

> Latin: 86. eodem etiam M. Lurco, vir optimus, meus familiaris, convertit aculeum testimoni sui; negavit a privato pecuniam in provincia praetorem petere oportere. tandem, M. Lurco, non oportet?, accipere contra leges non oportet, petere non oportere numquam ostendes, nisi docueris non licere. legationes sumere liberas exigendi causa, sicut et tu ipse nuper et multi viri boni saepe fecerunt, rectum est, quod ego non reprehendo, socios video queri; praetorem, si hereditatem in provincia non reliquerit, non solum reprehendendum verum etiam condemnandum putas? “,” inquit, “Valeria pecuniam omnem suam dixerat.” istorum explicari potest, nisi ostenderis illam in tutela Flacci non fuisse. fuit, quaecumque sine hoc auctore est dicta dos, nulla est.

[¶8] 87. But still you saw that Lurco was angry with Flaccus, although out of regard to his own dignity he was guided by some moderation in giving his evidence. For he did not conceal, or think it at all necessary to be silent about the cause of his anger. He complained that his freedman had been condemned by Flaccus when he was praetor. O how miserable is the condition of those who have the government of provinces! in which diligence is sure to bring enmity; carelessness is sure to incur reproach; severity is dangerous; liberality meets only with ingratitude. The conversation addressed to one is insidious; the flattery with which one is courted is mischievous; the countenance which every one wears towards you is friendly; the disposition of numbers is hostile; dislikes are secret; caresses are open; they wait with eagerness for the coming praetors, they fawn on those who are present, they abandon and betray those who are departing. But let us give over complaining, lest we should seem to be extolling our own wisdom in declining all provinces.

> Latin: 87. tamen Lurconem, quamquam pro sua dignitate moderatus est in testimonio dicendo orationi suae, tamen iratum Flacco esse vidistis. enim occultavit causam iracundiae suae neque reticendam putavit; questus est libertum suum Flacco praetore esse damnatum. O condiciones miseras administrandarum provinciarum, in quibus diligentia plena simultatum est, neglegentia vituperationum, ubi severitas periculosa est, liberalitas ingrata, sermo insidiosus, adsentatio perniciosa, frons omnium familiaris, multorum animus iratus, iracundiae occultae, blanditiae apertae, venientis praetores exspectant, praesentibus inserviunt, abeuntis deserunt! omittamus querelas, ne nostrum consilium in praetermittendis provinciis laudare videamur.

[¶9] 88. He sent letters about the steward of Publius Septimius, a man of great accomplishments, which steward had committed murder. You might have seen Septimius burning with anger. He allowed (in accordance with his edict) an action against a freedman of Lurco to proceed. Lurco is his enemy. What then? Was Asia to be abandoned to the freedmen of influential and powerful men? or has Flaccus any personal hostility of any sort with your freedmen? or do you hate his severity when displayed in your own causes, and in those of your freedmen, though you praise impartiality when it is we who are on our trial? But that man Andro, who was stripped of all his property, as you say, has not come forward to give his evidence. What if he had? Suppose he had come.

> Latin: 88. Litteras misit de vilico P. Septimi, hominis ornati, qui vilicus caedem fecerat; Septimium ardentem iracundia videre potuistis. Lurconis libertum iudicium ex edicto dedit; hostis est Lurco. igitur? hominum gratiosorum splendidorumque libertis fuit Asia tradenda? an simultates nescio quas cum libertis vestris Flaccus exercet? an vobis in vestris vestrorumque causis severitas odio est, eandem laudatis, cum de nobis iudicatis? iste Andro spoliatus bonis, ut dicitis, ad dicendum testimonium non venit. si veniat?

[¶10] 89. Caius Caecilius was the arbitrator of the settlement come to in that case. How noble, how upright, how conscientious a man! Caius Sextilius was a witness to it, the son of Lurco's sister—a modest, and consistent, and sensible man. If there was any violence employed in the business, any fraud, any fear, any trickery, still who compelled any arrangement to be made at all? who compelled the parties to have recourse to an arbitrator? What will you say, if all that money was restored to this young man by Lucius Flaccus? if it was claimed by him? if it was collected for him? and if this was done through the agency of this Antiochus who is here in court the freedman of this youth's father, and a man most highly esteemed by the elder Flaccus? Do we not then seem not only to escape from the charge of covetousness, but even to deserve the credit of very extraordinary liberality? For he gave up to the young man his relation the whole of their joint inheritance, which by law ought to have belonged to both of them in equal shares; and he himself touched none of Valeria's property. What he had resolved to do, being influenced by the young man's amiable character, and not by the great amount of his patrimony, that he not only did, but did most liberally and courteously. From which it ought to be understood that he had not taken the money in violation of the laws, when he was so very liberal in abandoning the inheritance.

> Latin: 89. arbiter C. Caecilius fuit, quo splendore vir, qua fide, qua religione! obsignator C. Sextilius, Lurconis sororis filius, homo et pudens et constans et gravis. vis erat, si fraus, si metus, si circumscriptio, quis pactionem fieri, quis adesse istos coegit?? si ista omnis pecunia huic adulescentulo L. Flacco reddita est, si petita, si redacta per hunc Antiochum, paternum huius adulescentis libertum seni illi Flacco probatissimum, videmurne non solum avaritiae crimen effugere sed etiam liberalitatis laudem adsequi singularem? enim hereditatem, quae aequaliter ad utrumque lege venisset, concessit adulescenti propinquo suo, nihil ipse attigit de Valerianis bonis. statuerat facere adductus huius pudore et non amplissimis patrimoni copiis, id non solum fecit sed etiam prolixe cumulateque fecit. quo intellegi debet eum contra leges pecunias non cepisse qui tam fuerit in hereditate concedenda liberalis.

[¶11] 90. But the charge respecting Falcidius is a serious one. He says that he gave fifty talents to Flaccus. Let us hear the man himself. He is not here. How then does he say it? His mother produces one letter, and his sister produces a second; and they say that he had written to them to say that he had given this large sum to Flaccus. Therefore he, whom, if he were to swear while holding by the altar, no one would believe, is to be allowed to prove whatever he pleases by a letter without being put on his oath at all! And what a man he is! how unfriendly to his fellow-citizens; a man who preferred squandering a sufficiently ample patrimony, which he might have spent among us here, in Grecian banquets!

> Latin: 90. Falcidianum crimen est ingens; talenta quinquaginta se Flacco dicit dedisse. hominem. adest. modo igitur dicit? mater eius profert et alteram soror; scriptum ad se dicunt esse ab illo tantam pecuniam Flacco datam. is cui, si aram tenens iuraret, crederet nemo, per epistulam quod volet iniuratus probabit? qui vir! quam non amicus suis civibus! qui patrimonium satis lautum, quod hic nobiscum conficere potuit, Graecorum conviviis maluit dissipare.

[¶12] 91. What was his object in leaving this city? in depriving himself of the glorious liberty existing here? in undergoing all the danger of a voyage? just as if he might not have devoured his property here at Rome. Now at last this jolly son writes to his mother, an old woman not very likely to suspect him, and clears himself by a letter, in order to appear not to have spent all that money with which he had crossed the sea, but to have given it to Flaccus. But those crops of the Trallians had been sold when Globulus was praetor. Falcidius had bought them for nine hundred thousand sesterces. If he gives so much money to Flaccus, he assuredly gives it to secure the ratification of that purchase. He then buys something which certainly was worth a great deal more than he gave for it; he pays for it out of his profit; he never touches his capital. Therefore he makes the less profit.

> Latin: 91. attinuit relinquere hanc urbem, libertate tam praeclara carere, adire periculum navigandi? quasi bona comesse Romae non liceret. denique materculae suae festivus filius, aniculae minime suspiciosae, purgat se per epistulam, ut eam pecuniam quacum traiecerat non consumpsisse, sed Flacco dedisse videatur. fructus isti Trallianorum praetore venierant; Falcidius emerat HS nongentis milibus. dat tantam pecuniam Flacco, nempe idcirco dat ut rata sit emptio. igitur aliquid quod certe multo pluris esset; dat de lucro, nihil detrahit de vivo.

[¶13] 92. Why does he order his Alban farm to be sold? Why, besides, does he caress his mother in this way? Why does he try to overreach the imbecility of his sister and mother by letters? Lastly, why do we not hear the man's own statement? He is detained, I suppose, in the province. His mother says he is not. “He would have come,” says the prosecutor, “if he had been summoned.” You certainly would have compelled him to come, if you had thought your statement would receive any real confirmation from his appearing as a witness. But you were unwilling to take the man away from his business. There was an arduous contest before him; a very severe battle with the Greeks; who, however, as I think, are defeated and overthrown. For he by himself beat all Asia in the size of his cups, and in his power of drinking. But still, who was it, O Laelius, who gave you information about those letters? The women say that they do not know. Who is it then? Did the man himself tell you that he had written to his sister and mother?

> Latin: 92. Albanum venire iubet,cur matri praeterea blanditur, cur epistulis et sororis et matris imbecillitatem aucupatur, postremo cur non audimus ipsum?, credo, in provincia. negat. “,” inquit, “si esset denuntiatum.” certe coegisses, si ullum firmamentum in illo teste posuisses; sed hominem a negotio abducere noluisti. Magnum erat ei certamen propositum, magna cum Graecis contentio; qui tamen, ut opinor, iacent victi. iste unus totam Asiam magnitudine poculorum bibendoque superavit. tamen quis tibi, Laeli, de epistulis istis indicavit? negant se scire qui sit. igitur ille tibi se ad matrem et sororem scripsisse narravit?

[¶14] 93. or did he write at your entreaty? But do you put no questions to Marcus Aebutius, a most sensible and virtuous man, a relation of Falcidius? Do you decline to examine Caius Manilius his son-in-law, a man of equal integrity? men who certainly must have heard something of so large a sum of money, if it had been given. Did you, O Decianus, think that you were going to prove so heavy a charge, by reading these letters, and bringing forward these women, while the author whom you were quoting was kept at a distance? Especially when you yourself, by not producing Falcidius, declared your own opinion that a forged letter would have more weight than the feigned voice and simulated indignation of the man himself if present.

> Latin: 93. etiam scripsit oratu tuo? vero M. Aebutium, constantissimum et pudentissimum hominem, Falcidi adfinem, nihil interrogas, nihil eius generum pari fide praeditum, C. Manilium? qui profecto de tanta pecunia, si esset data, nihil audisse non possent. tu igitur epistulis, Deciane, recitatis, his mulierculis productis, illo absente auctore laudato tantum te crimen probaturum putasti, praesertim cum ipse non deducendo Falcidium iudicium feceris plus falsam epistulam habituram ponderis quam ipsius praesentis fictam vocem et simulatum dolorem?

[¶15] 94. But why keep on so long discussing and expostulating about the letters of Falcidius, or about Andron Sextilius, or about the income of Decianus, and say nothing about the safety of fortunes of the state, and the general interests of the republic? the whole of which are at stake in this trial, and are resting on your shoulders,—on yours, I say, you who are our judges. You see in what critical times, in what uncertain and variable circumstances, we are all at present placed. There are certain men who are planning many other things, and who are labouring most especially to cause your inclinations, your formal decisions and sentences to appear in a most unfavourable and odious light to all the most respectable citizen. You have given many important decisions in a manner suited to the dignity of the republic and particularly you have given many respecting the guilt of the conspirators. They do not think that the republic has been turned upside down enough unless they can overwhelm citizens who have deserved well of the republic with the same punishment as that with which this impious man Caius Antonius has been crushed.

> Latin: 94. quid ego de epistulis Falcidi aut de Androne Sextilio aut de Deciani censu tam diu disputo, de salute omnium nostrum, de fortunis civitatis, de summa re publica taceo? quam vos universam in hoc iudicio vestris, ⟨vestris⟩ inquam, umeris, iudices, sustinetis. quo in motu temporum, quanta in conversione rerum ac perturbatione versemur. Cum alia multa certi homines, tum hoc vel maxime moliuntur ut vestrae quoque mentes, vestra iudicia, vestrae sententiae optimo cuique infestissimae atque inimicissimae reperiantur. iudicia pro rei publicae dignitate multa de coniuratorum scelere fecistis. putant satis conversam rem publicam, nisi in eandem impiorum poenam optime meritos civis detruserint.

[¶16] 95. Be it so. He had some particular misdeeds of his own to bear up against. And yet even he (I say this on my own responsibility) would never have been condemned if you had been his judges, he, a man by whose condemnation the tomb of Catiline was decked with flowers and the sepulchres of all those most audacious men and domestic enemies were honoured with assemblies and banquets, and by which the shade of Catiline was appeased. Now an expiation for the death of Lentulus is sought to be obtained at Flaccus's expense, and by your instrumentality. What victim can you offer more acceptable to the manes of Publius Lentulus,—who intended, after you had been all murdered amid the embraces of your children and your wives, to bury you beneath the burning ruins of your country,—than you will offer, if you satiate his impious hatred towards all of us in the blood of Lucius Flaccus?

> Latin: 95. est C. Antonius.; habuit quandam ille infamiam suam; neque tamen ille ipse, pro meo iure dico, vobis iudicibus damnatus esset, cuius damnatione sepulcrum L. Catilinae floribus ornatum hominum audacissimorum ac domesticorum hostium conventu epulisque celebratum est. Catilinae facta sunt; nunc a Flacco Lentuli poenae per vos expetuntur. potestis P. Lentulo, qui vos in complexu liberorum coniugumque vestrarum trucidatos incendio patriae sepelire conatus est, mactare victimam gratiorem quam si L. Flacci sanguine illius nefarium in vos omnis odium saturaveritis?

[¶17] 96. Let us then offer a sacrifice to Lentulus, let us make atonement to Cethegus, let us recall the exiles, let us in our turn, if you, O judges, think fit, suffer the punishment due to too great piety, and to the greatest possible affection towards our country. At this moment we are being mentioned by name by the informers; accusations are being invented against us; dangers are being prepared for us. And if they did these things by the instrumentality of others,—if, in short, by using the name of the people, they had excited a mob of ignorant citizens, we could bear it with more equanimity. But this can never be borne, that they should think that, by means of senators and knights of Rome, who have done all these things with a view to the safety of all the citizens, by their common decision, animated with one idea, and inspired with one and the same virtue, the prime movers, and leaders, and chief actors in these transactions, can be deprived of all their fortunes, and be expelled from the city. In truth, they are acquainted with the feelings and inclinations of the Roman people; by every means which it is master of, the Roman people indicates what are its opinions and feelings; there is no diversity of opinion, or of inclination, or of language.

> Latin: 96. igitur Lentulo,parentemus Cethego, revocemus eiectos; nimiae pietatis et summi amoris in patriam vicissim nos poenas, si ita placet, sufferamus. iam ab indicibus nominamur, in nos crimina finguntur, nobis pericula comparantur. si per alios agerent, si denique per populi nomen civium imperitorum multitudinem concitassent, aequiore animo ferre possemus; illud vero ferri non potest, quod per senatores et per equites Romanos, qui haec omnia pro salute omnium communi consilio, una mente atque virtute gesserunt, harum rerum auctores, duces, principes spoliari omnibus fortunis atque civitate expelli posse arbitrantur. populi Romani perspiciunt eandem mentem et voluntatem; omnibus rebus quibus potest populus Romanus significat quid sentiat; nulla varietas est inter homines opinionis, nulla voluntatis, nulla sermonis.

[¶18] 97. Wherefore, if any one summons me, I come. I not only do not object to the Roman people as arbitrators in my cause, but I even demand them. Let there be no violence; let weapons and stones be kept at a distance let the artisans depart; let the slaves be silent. No one who hears me will be so unjust, if he be only a free man and a citizen, as not to think that he ought rather to think of rewards for me than of punishment. O ye immortal got! what can be more miserable than this? We who wrested fire and sword out of the hands of Publius Lentulus, are trusting now to the judgment of an ignorant multitude, and are in dread of the sentence of chosen men and most honourable citizens.

> Latin: 97. re, si quis illuc me vocat, venio;populum Romanum disceptatorem non modo non recuso sed etiam deposco. absit, ferrum ac lapides removeantur, operae facessant, servitia sileant; nemo erit tam iniustus qui me audierit, sit modo liber et civis, quin potius de praemiis meis quam de poena cogitandum putet. O di immortales! quid hoc miserius? qui P. Lentulo ferrum et flammam de manibus extorsimus, imperitae multitudinis iudicio confidimus, lectissimorum civium et amplissimorum sententias pertimescimus!

[¶19] 98. Our fathers by their decision delivered Marcus Aquillius, who had been convicted of many charges of avarice, proved by abundant evidence, because he had behaved gallantly in the Servile war. I, when consul, lately defended Cnaeus Piso; who, because he had been a gallant and fearless consul, was preserved to the republic uninjured. I, when consul, defended also Lucius Murena, the consul elect. Not one of the judges in that case—though they were most eminent men who were the prosecutors—thought that they ought to entertain for one moment the accusation of bribery, because, while Catiline was still waging war against the republic, they agreed with me that it was necessary for them to have two consuls on the first of January. Aulus Thermius, an innocent and virtuous man, and one adorned with every sort of distinction, has been twice acquitted this year, when I have defended him. How great was the joy, how great were the congratulations of the Roman people at that event, for the sake of the republic! Wise and grave judges have always, when deciding in criminal trials, considered what the interests of the state, and the general safety, and the present necessities of the republic required.

> Latin: 98. M'. Aquilium patres nostri multis avaritiae criminibus testimoniisque convictum, quia cum fugitivis fortiter bellum gesserat, iudicio liberaverunt. ego nuper defendi C. Pisonem; qui, quia consul fortis constansque fuerat, incolumis est rei publicae conservatus. item consul L. Murenam, consulem designatum. illorum iudicum clarissimis viris accusantibus audiendum sibi de ambitu putavit, cum bellum iam gerente Catilina omnes me auctore duos consules Kalendis Ianuariis scirent esse oportere. et bonus vir et omnibus rebus ornatus bis hoc anno me defendente absolutus est, A. Thermus. rei publicae causa laetitia populi Romani, quanta gratulatio consecuta est! graves et sapientes iudices in rebus iudicandis quid utilitas civitatis, quid communis salus, quid rei publicae tempora poscerent, cogitaverunt.

[¶20] 99. When the voting tablets are given to you, O judges, it will not be Flaccus alone who will be interested in their verdict; the generals and all those who are leaders in the preservation of the city will all be interested; all good men will be interested; you yourselves will be interested; your children, your own lives, your country, the general safety, will all be interested in your vote. In this cause you are not determining about foreign nations, or about the allies; you are deciding on the welfare of your own selves and your own republic.

> Latin: 99. Cum tabella vobis dabitur, iudices, non de Flacco dabitur solum, dabitur de ducibus auctoribusque conservandae civitatis, dabitur de omnibus bonis civibus, dabitur de vobismet ipsis, dabitur de liberis vestris, de vita, de patria, de salute communi. iudicatis in hac causa de exteris nationibus, non de sociis; de vobis atque de vestra re publica iudicatis.

[¶21] 100. And if the consideration of the provinces has more weight with you than that of your own interests, I not only do not object, but I even demand that you should be influenced by the authority of the provinces. In truth, we will oppose to the province of Asia first of all a great part of the same province, which has sent deputies and panegyrists to stand up and defend this man from danger; in the next place we will set against it the province of Gaul, the province of Cilicia, the province of Spain, and the province of Crete; and against Greeks, whether they be Lydians, Mysians, or Phrygians, shall be set the men of Massilia, the Rhodians, the Lacedaemonians, the Athenians, and all Achaia, Thessaly, and Boeotia. Septimius and Caelius, the witnesses for them, shall be balanced by Publius Servilius and Quintus Metellus, as witnesses of this man's moderation and integrity. The Asiatic jurisdiction shall be replied to by the jurisdiction of the city; and the whole conduct and entire life of Lucius Flaccus shall defend him from accusations brought against him, all relying on the transactions of a single year.

> Latin: 100. si provinciarum vos ratio magis movet quam vestra, ego vero non modo non recuso sed etiam postulo ut provinciarum auctoritate moveamini. opponemus Asiae provinciae primum magnam partem eiusdem provinciae quae pro huius periculis legatos laudatoresque misit, deinde provinciam Galliam, provinciam Ciliciam, ⟨provinciam⟩ Hispaniam, provinciam Cretam; Graecis autem Lydis et Phrygibus et Mysis obsistent Massilienses, Rhodii, Lacedaemonii, Athenienses, cuncta Achaia, Thessalia, Boeotia; Septimio et Caelio testibus P. Servilius et Q. Metellus huius pudoris integritatisque testes repugnabunt; Asiaticae iuris dictioni urbana iuris dictio respondebit; annui temporis criminationem omnis aetas L. Flacci et perpetua vita defendet.

[¶22] 101. And if, O judges, it ought to avail Lucius Flaccus that, as tribune of the soldiers, as quaestor, as lieutenant to the most illustrious generals, he has behaved among the most distinguished armies, and in the most important provinces, in a manner worthy of his ancestors; let it also avail him, that before your own eyes, at a time of general danger to you all, he united his fate to mine, and shared my danger; let the panegyrics of most honourable municipalities and colonies avail him; let the most glorious and genuine praise of the Roman senate and Roman people avail him.

> Latin: 101. , si prodesse L. Flacco, iudices, debet, quod se tribunum militum, quod quaestorem, quod legatum imperatoribus clarissimis, exercitibus ornatissimis, provinciis gravissimis dignum suis maioribus praestitit, prosit quod hic vobis videntibus in periculis communibus omnium nostrum sua pericula cum meis coniunxit, prosint honestissimorum municipiorum coloniarumque laudationes, prosit etiam senatus populique Romani praeclara et vera laudatio.

[¶23] 102. Oh that night, that night which nearly brought eternal darkness on this city, when the Gauls were invited to war, when Catiline was invited into the city, when the conspirators were invited to bring fire and sword upon us all; when I, O Flaccus, invoking heaven and night, was with tears entreating your aid, and you in tears were listening to me; when I commended to your honest and well-proved loyalty the safety of the city and of the citizens. You, O Flaccus, being at that time praetor, took the messengers of the general destruction; it was you who arrested that plague of the republic which was contained in letters; you brought the proofs of our danger, you brought the aid that was to secure our safety to me and to the senate. What thanks were then given you by me! how did the senate, how did all good men thank you! Who would then have thought that any good man would ever refuse to Caius Pomptinus, that bravest of men, or to you, I will not say safety, but any imaginable honour? Oh those nones of December; what a time was that when I was consul! a day that I may fairly call the birthday of this city, or at all events its day of salvation.

> Latin: 102. O nox illa quae paene aeternas huic urbi tenebras attulisti, cum Galli ad bellum, Catilina ad urbem, coniurati ad ferrum et flammam vocabantur, cum ego te, Flacce, caelum noctemque contestans flens flentem obtestabar, cum tuae fidei optimae et spectatissimae salutem urbis et civium commendabam! tum, Flacce, praetor communis exiti nuntios cepisti, tu inclusam in litteris rei publicae pestem deprehendisti, tu periculorum indicia, tu salutis auxilia ad me et ad senatum attulisti. tibi tum gratiae sunt a me actae, quae ab senatu, quae a bonis omnibus! tibi, quis C. Pomptino, fortissimo viro, quemquam bonum putaret umquam non salutem verum honorem ullum denegaturum? O Nonae illae Decembres quae me consule fuistis! quem ego diem vere natalem huius urbis aut certe salutarem appellare possum.

[¶24] 103. Oh that night which that day followed! happy was it for this city; but, wretched man that I am, I fear it may still prove disastrous to me myself. What spirit was then shown by Lucius Flaccus! (for I will say nothing about myself,) what devotion to his country, what virtue, what firmness! But why do I speak of those things which then, at the time that they happened, were extolled to the skies by the cordial agreement of all men, by the unanimous voice of the Roman people, by the testimony in their favour of the whole world? Now I fear, not only that they may be no advantage to my client, but that they may even be some injury to him. Indeed, I sometimes fancy that the memory of bad men is much more lively than that of good men. It is I, if any disaster happens to you, O Flaccus, it is I who shall have betrayed you; it is that pledge of mine which will be in fault, that promise of mine, that undertaking of mine, when I promised, that if we by our joint efforts could preserve the republic, you, as long as you lived, should not only be defended, but also honoured by the espousal of your cause by all virtuous men. I did think, O judges, I did hope that, even if our honour appeared to you a consideration of no importance at all events you would take care of our safety.

> Latin: 103. O nox illa quam iste est dies consecutus, fausta huic urbi, miserum me, metuo ne funesta nobis! tum animus L. Flacci—nihil dicam enim de me—qui amor in patriam, quae virtus, quae gravitas exstitit! quid ea commemoro quae tum cum agebantur uno consensu omnium, una voce populi Romani, uno orbis terrae testimonio in caelum laudibus efferebantur, nunc vereor ne non modo non prosint verum etiam aliquid obsint? multo acriorem improborum interdum memoriam esse sentio quam bonorum. te, si quid gravius acciderit, ego te, inquam, Flacce, prodidero. ⟨O⟩ mea dextera illa, mea fides, mea promissa, cum te, si rem publicam conservaremus, omnium bonorum praesidio quoad viveres non modo munitum sed etiam ornatum fore pollicebar., speravi, etiam si honos noster vobis vilior fuisset, salutem certe caram futuram.

[¶25] 104. But if, O judges, this terrible injury should overwhelm Lucius Flaccus (may the immortal gods avert the omen!) still he will never repent of having provided for your safety, of having consulted the interests of you, and of your wives, and of your children, and your entire welfare. It will always be his feeling that he owed such sentiments to the nobleness of his race, and to his religion, and to his country; you, O judges, take care that you have no cause to repent of not having spared such a citizen. For how few are they who adopt these principles in the republic; who desire only to please you and men like you; who think the authority of every virtuous and honourable man and body of men of the greatest weight, seeing that that path is both the one which leads most easily to honours and everything which they desire. But let everything else belong to our adversaries: let them keep to themselves power, and honours, and all the best opportunities of attaining all other advantages let it be allowed to those men who have striven to preserve all these things, to be at least safe themselves.

> Latin: 104. L. Flaccum quidem, iudices, si, quod di immortales omen avertant, gravis iniuria adflixerit, numquam tamen prospexisse vestrae saluti, consuluisse vobis, liberis, coniugibus, fortunis vestris paenitebit; semper ita sentiet, talem se animum et generis dignitati et pietati suae et patriae debuisse; vos ne paeniteat tali civi non pepercisse, per deos immortalis, iudices, providete. enim quisque est qui hanc in re publica sectam sequatur, qui vobis, qui vestri similibus placere cupiat, qui optimi atque amplissimi cuiusque hominis atque ordinis auctoritatem magni putet, ⟨cum⟩ illam viam sibi videant expeditiorem ad honores et ad omnia quae concupiverunt? cetera sint eorum; sibi habeant potentiam, sibi honores, sibi ceterorum commodorum summas facultates; liceat eis qui haec salva esse voluerunt ipsis esse salvis.

[¶26] 105. Do not think, O judges, that they, who are now starting fresh who have not as yet arrived at honours, are not looking anxiously for the result of this trial. If the exceeding affection of Lucius Flaccus for all good men, and his great devotion to the republic turns out an injury to him, who do you expect will in future be so insane, as not to think that path of life which he has hitherto been accustomed to consider slippery and dangerous preferable to this level and steady one? But if you, O judges, are tired of such citizens declare it; those who can will change their opinions, those who have their path still to choose will soon make up their minds what to do we who have advanced as far as we have must bear this result of our rashness. If you wish as many as possible to be of this opinion, you will declare by this decision what your sentiments are.

> Latin: 105. , iudices, existimare eos quibus integrum est, qui nondum ad honores accesserunt, non exspectare huius exitum iudici. L. Flacco tantus amor in bonos omnis, tantum in rem publicam studium calamitati fuerit, quem posthac tam amentem fore putatis qui non illam viam vitae quam ante praecipitem et lubricam esse ducebat huic planae et stabili praeponendam esse arbitretur? si talium civium vos, iudices, taedet, ostendite; mutabunt sententiam qui potuerint; constituent quid agant quibus integrum est; nos qui iam progressi sumus hunc exitum nostrae temeritatis feremus. hoc animo quam plurimos esse voltis, declarabitis hoc iudicio quid sentiatis.

[¶27] 106. By your decision in this case, O judges, you will give this unhappy suppliant to you and to your children—precepts by which to regulate his life. If you preserve his father to him, you will prescribe to him what sort of citizen he himself ought to be. If you take his father from him, you will show that there is no reward held out by you to virtuous and wise and consistent conduct. And he now, (since he is of that age that he is able to feel for his father's agony, but not yet to be any assistance to his father in his dangers,) he, I say, entreats you not to add his father's tears to his sorrow, or his weeping to his father's misery. He fixes his eyes on me also, he implores me by his looks, he, as I may say, appeals to my good faith, and claims of me that honour for his father which I once promised him in return for the safety of his country. Pity his family, O judges; pity that most gallant father; pity the son: preserve to the republic that most noble and glorious name, either for the sake of the blood, or of the antiquity of the family, or else for the sake of the individual.

> Latin: 106. , huic misero puero vestro ac liberorum vestrorum supplici, iudices, hoc iudicio vivendi praecepta dabitis. si patrem conservatis, qualis ipse debeat esse civis praescribetis; si eripitis, ostendetis bonae rationi et constanti et gravi nullum a vobis fructum esse propositum. vos, quoniam est id aetatis ut sensum iam percipere possit ex maerore patrio, auxilium nondum patri ferre possit, orat ne suum luctum patris lacrimis, patris maerorem suo fletu augeatis; qui etiam me intuetur, me voltu appellat, meam quodam modo flens fidem implorat ac repetit eam quam ego patri suo quondam pro salute patriae spoponderim dignitatem. familiae, iudices, miseremini fortissimi patris, miseremini fili; nomen clarissimum et fortissimum vel generis vel vetustatis vel hominis causa rei publicae reservate.
Fragmenta 1. quam benivolum hunc populo Romano, quam fidelem putatis? 2.ingenita levitas et erudita vanitas.