[24]
Therefore I have made up my mind, O judges, before I
come to make my defence, and to summon my own witnesses, to make use of his confession and his
witnesses. What is it that he confesses, and confesses so willingly, that he seems not only to
admit it, but even to boast of it, O judges? “I summoned men; I collected them; I
armed them; I prevented you from entering on the farm by fear of death, by threatening you
with personal danger; by the sword,“ says he, “by the sword.”
(And he says this in open court.) “I drove you away and routed you.” What
more? What say the witnesses? Publius Vetilius, a relation of Aebutius, says that he was with
Aebutius as his assistant, with several armed slaves. What more does he say?—That
there were many armed men there. What more?—That Aebutius threatened Caecina. What
shall I say of this witness, O judges, except this, that you must not believe him the less
because he does not seem to be a thoroughly respectable man, but that you must believe him,
because his evidence goes to establish the very facts that are most unfavourable to his cause?
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