[37]
And if, even in the case of an ignoble defendant, it
would not be endurable that those men should think they had effected anything by their
threats, what do you think you ought to do in the case of Marcus Fonteius? concerning whom, O
judges, (for I think that I am entitled to say this now, when I have almost come to the
termination of two trials,) concerning whom, I say, you have not only not heard any
disgraceful charge invented by his enemies, but you have not even heard any really serious
reproach. Was ever any defendant, especially when he had moved in such a sphere as this man,
as a candidate for honours, as an officer in command, and as a governor, accused in such a
way, that no disgraceful act, no deed of violence, no baseness originating either in lust or
insolence or audacity, was attributed to him, if not with truth, at least with some suspicious
circumstances giving a reasonable colouring to the invention?
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M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge, B. A. London. Henry G. Bohn, York Street, Covent Garden. 1856.
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