[44]
Do you say that one must not believe Manilius and Luscius? Say it. Dare to say it.
Such a saying suits your obstinacy, your arrogance, your whole life. What! Are you
waiting till I say presently of Luscius and Manilius that they are as to rank senators;
as to age, old; as to their nature, pious and religious; as to their property, rich and
wealthy I will not do so; I will not, on pretence of giving these men the credit due to
a life passed with the greatest strictness, put myself in so bad a light as to venture
to panegyrize men so much older and nobler than myself, whose characters stand in no
need of my praise. My youth is in more need of their favourable opinion than their
strict old age is of my commendation. But you, O Piso, must deliberate and consider for
a long time whether you will rather believe Chaerea, though not on his oath, and in his
own cause, or Manilius and Luscius on their oaths, in a cause in which they have no
interest.
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M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge. London. George Bell & Sons. 1903.
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