[23]
But, however, I will say no more about Cato,
whose eminent virtue, and dignity, and integrity, and moderation in that
business which he executed, appear like a screen to veil the iniquity of
your law and of your argument. What more need I say? Who was it who gave to
the most infamous man that has ever existed, to the most wicked and polluted
of all men, that rich and fertile Syria? Who gave him a war to carry on against nations who
were in a state of profound peace? Who gave him the money which was destined
for the purchase of lands and which had been taken by violence out of the
fruits of the achievements of Caesar? Who gave him an unlimited
command?1 And,
indeed, when you had given him Cilicia, you altered the terms of your bargain with him,
and you transferred Cilicia to the
praetor, again quite out of the regular course. And then, when the bribe had
been increased, you gave Syria to
Gabinius—expressly naming him. What more? Did you not, naming him
expressly, deliver over, bound and fettered, to Lucius Piso, the foulest,
the most cruel, the most treacherous of men, the most infamous of all men,
as stigmatised for every sort of wickedness and lust, free nations, who had
been declared free by numerous resolutions of the senate, and even by a
recent law of your own son-in-law? Did not you, after the recompense for
your service and the bribe of a province had been paid by him at my expense,
still divide the treasury with him?
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1 Gabinius is meant here; but Graevius thinks that there is a good deal of corruption in this passage.
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