[10]
Where does that expression,
“Give evidence for me, and I will give evidence for you,” come from? is it
supposed to be a phrase of the Gauls, or of the Spaniards? It belongs wholly to the Greeks; so
that even those who do not understand Greek know what form of expression is used by the Greeks
for this. Therefore, when they give their evidence, remark with what a countenance, with what
confidence they give it; and then you will become aware how scrupulous they are as to what
evidence they give. They never reply precisely to a question. They always answer an accuser
more than he asks them. They never feel any anxiety to make what they say seem probable to any
one; but are solicitous only how to get out what they have got to say. Marcus Lurco gave
evidence against Flaccus, being angry (as he said himself) because his freedman had been
condemned by a decision of his involving infamy. He said nothing which could injure him,
though he was eager to do so; for his conscientious regard to his oath prevented him.
This text is part of:
Search the Perseus Catalog for:
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.
The National Endowment for the Humanities provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.