[111]
Heraclius of Segesta also pleads his cause; a man of the very noblest descent in
his own city. Listen, O judges, as your humanity requires of you, for you will hear
of great cruelties and injuries inflicted on the allies. Know then that the case of
Heraclius was this:—that on account of a severe complaint in his eyes he
had not gone to sea at all; but by his order who had the command, he had remained in
his quarters at Syracuse. He certainly
never betrayed the fleet; he did not run away in a fright; he did not desert the
army; if he had, he might have been punished when the fleet was setting out from
Syracuse. But he was in just the
same condition as if he had been detected in some manifest crime; though no charge
at all could be brought against him, not ever so falsely.
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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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