[206]
Other men, too, hare done other things, and
plenty of them; why in this charge alone do you use this sort of defence? There are
some things in you so extraordinary, that they cannot be said of, or meet in the
character of, any other man; there are some things which you have in common with
many men. Therefore, to say nothing of your acts of peculation, or of your taking
money for the appointment of judges, and other things of that sort which, perhaps,
other men also may have committed; will you defend yourself, also, from the charge
which I bring against you as the most serious one of all—the charge,
namely, of having taken money to influence your legal decisions, by the same
argument, that others have done so too? Even if I were to admit the assertion, still
I should not admit it as any defence. For it would be better that by your
condemnation there should be more limited room for defending dishonesty left to
others, than that, owing to your acquittal, others should be thought to have
legitimately done what they have done with the greatest audacity.
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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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