[52]
But who can be induced to believe this—that you,
without any profit, or even without the greatest profit to yourself, disregarded the
great disgrace, the great danger to your position as a free man, and to your
fortunes, which you were incurring, so far as, though you were daily hearing the
groans and complaints of all Sicily,—though, as you yourself have said, you expected to be
brought to trial for this,—though the hazard of this present trial is not
at all inconsistent with the opinion you yourself had formed,—still to
allow the cultivators of the soil to be harassed and plundered with circumstances of
the most scandalous injustice? In truth, though you are a man of singular cruelty
and audacity, still you would be unwilling for a whole province to be alienated from
you,—for so many most honourable men to be made your greatest enemies, if
your desire for money and present booty had not overcome all reason and all
consideration of safety.
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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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