[21]
So that, as far as I am concerned, O judges, I gained the day; for I did not desire
the spoils of Caius Verres, but the good opinion of the Roman people. It was my
business to act as accuser only if I had a good cause. What cause was ever juster
than the being appointed and selected by as illustrious a province as its defender?
To consult the welfare of the republic;—what could be more honourable for
the republic, than while the tribunals were in such general discredit, to bring
before them a man by whose condemnation the whole order of the senate might be
restored to credit and favour with the Roman people?—to prove and convince
men that it was a guilty man who was brought to trial? Who is there of the Roman
people who did not carry away this conviction from the previous pleading, that if
all the wickednesses, thefts, and enormities of all who have ever been condemned
before were brought together into one place, they could scarcely be likened or
compared to but a small part of this man's crimes?
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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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