---
title: "For Flaccus · Pro L. Flacco"
author: "Cicero"
translator: "Charles Duke Yonge"
languages: [la, en]
shelf: "Classical Latin"
section: 1 of 4
url: https://scriptura.si/works/cicero-pro-flacco/1/
cite: "Cicero, tr. Charles Duke Yonge, For Flaccus · Pro L. Flacco, section 1. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/cicero-pro-flacco/1/"
---

# 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.

## 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.