[41]
And if it be lawful to Africans, to Sardinians, to Spaniards,—men
who have been punished by the deprivation of their lands and by the
imposition of tribute,—to acquire the rights of citizenship among
us by their virtue, but if it be not allowed to the men of Gades, who are united to us by duty, and
by the antiquity of their alliance with us, and by their loyalty, and by our
mutual dangers, and by an express treaty, to acquire the same rights, then
they will think that they have not a treaty with us, but that most
iniquitous laws have been imposed on them by us. And, O judges, the very
circumstances of this case show that this assertion is not one
just invented by me for the purpose, but that I am saying what the men of
Gades have instructed me to
say. I say that the men of Gades
publicly entered into a connection of mutual hospitality many years before
this time with Lucius Cornelius. I will produce witnesses, I will produce
ambassadors who will prove this; I will bring forward panegyrists, whom you
see here, having been sent expressly to this trial,—men of the
highest character and of the most noble birth,—to seek to avert
the danger of my client by their prayers. Lastly, by an act perfectly
unheard-of among the people of Gades before this time, the moment that it was known that
the prosecutor was preparing to bring Balbus before this court, the men of
Gades passed most solemn
resolutions of their senate respecting their own fellow-citizen.
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