[8]
If we have nothing else to speak about
except the rights of citizenship and the law, I need say no more. The cause is over. For which
of all these statements, O Gratius, can be invalidated? Will you deny that he was enrolled, at
the time I speak of, as a citizen of Heraclea? There is a man present of the very highest
authority, a most scrupulous and truthful man, Lucius Lucullus, who will tell you not that he
thinks it, but that he knows it; not that he has heard of it, but that he saw it; not even
that he was present when it was done, but that he actually did it himself. Deputies from
Heraclea are present, men of the highest rank; they have come expressly on account of this
trial, with a commission from their city, and to give evidence on the part of their city; and
they say that he was enrolled as a Heraclean. On this you ask for the public registers of the
Heracleans, which we all know were destroyed in the Italian war, when the register office was
burnt. It is ridiculous to say nothing to the proofs which we have, but to ask for proofs
which it is impossible for us to have; to disregard the recollection of men, and to appeal to
the memory of documents; and when you have the conscientious evidence of a most honourable
man, the oath and good faith of a most respectable municipality, to reject those things which
cannot by any possibility be tampered with, and to demand documentary evidence, though you say
at the same moment that that is constantly played tricks with.
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