[78]
Our prosecutor threatens us with the
examinations and torture of our slaves; and though we do not suspect that any danger can arise
to us from them, yet pain reigns in those tortures; much depends on the nature of every one's
mind, and the fortitude of a person's body. The inquisitor manages everything; caprice
regulates much, hope corrupts them, fear disables them, so that, in the straits in which they
are placed, there is but little room left for truth.
Is the life of Publius Sulla, then, to be put to the torture? is it to be examined to see
what lust is concealed beneath it? whether any crime is lurking under it, or any cruelty, or
any audacity? There will be no mistake in our cause, O judges, no obscurity, if the voice of
his whole life, which ought to be of the very greatest weight, is listened to by you.
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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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