[56]
I am aware, O judges, that in a cause that is so plain and so little liable
to any doubt, many more arguments have been adduced and more men of great
experience have spoken than the case at all required. But that has been
done, not in order by our speaking to prove to you a matter which required
proof so little, but in order to check the hostile disposition of all
spiteful, and wicked, and envious men, whom the prosecutor has sought to
inflame, hoping that some of the reports current among men who grieve over
the prosperity of another might reach your ears, and have their effect on
the result of this trial; and on that account you saw aspersions scattered
about with great art in every part of his speech; especially with respect to
the riches of Lucius Cornelius, which do not deserve to be brought into
odium, and which, whatever their amount may be, are such as to seem to have
been rather acquired by care than by any illicit or unfair
means; and with respect to his luxury, which he attacked, not by bringing
any definite charge of licentiousness against him, but by mere general
abuse. Then, too, he attacked him about his farm at Tusculum, which he recollected had
belonged to Quintus Metellus, and to Lucius Crassus; but he was not aware
that Crassus had bought it of a man who was a freedman, Sotericus Marcius by
name; that it had come to Metellus as part of the property of Venonius
Vindicius; and also, he did not know that lands do not belong to any
particular family, that they are accustomed to pass by sale to strangers,
often even to the very lowest people, not being protected by the laws like
guardianships.
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