[2]
In truth, if you are willing to attend
diligently, and to form a correct opinion of the whole of this cause, O
judges, you will make up your minds that no one would ever have come down to
the court, to prefer this accusation who had the power of doing so or not,
just as he pleased; and that, when he had come down, he would not have had
the slightest hope of succeeding if he had not relied on the intolerable
licentiousness and exaggerated hatred of some one else. But, for my part, I
can make allowance for Atratinus, a most humane and virtuous young man, and
a great friend of my own; who has the excuse of filial affection, and
necessity, and of youth. If he wished to accuse my client I attribute it to
his filial affection; if he was ordered to do so, I lay the blame on the
necessity; if he had any hope of succeeding, I impute that to the
inexperience of his boyhood. But as for the other partners in this
impeachment, those I have not only no allowance to make for, but I must
resist them most vigorously.
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M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge, B. A. London. George Bell & Sons, York Street, Covent Garden. 1891.
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