[71]
I say nothing of the rest that there may be some end to my
instances. I only ask you silently to recollect all those men who are proved to have been in
this conspiracy. You will see that every one of those men was convicted by his own manner of
life, before be was condemned by our suspicion. And as for Autronius himself, (since his name
is the most nearly connected with the danger in which my client is, and with the accusation
which is brought against him,) did not the manner in which he had spent all his early life
convict him? He had always been audacious, violent profligate. We know that in defending
himself in charges of adultery, he was accustomed to use not only the most infamous language,
but even his fists and his feet. We know that he had been accustomed to drive men from their
estates, to murder his neighbors, to plunder the temples of the allies, to disturb the courts
of justice by violence and arms; in prosperity to despise every body, in adversity to fight
against all good men; never to regard the interests of the republic, and not to yield even to
fortune herself. Even if he were not convicted by the most irresistible evidence, still his
own habits and his past life would convict him.
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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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