[56]
But you shall not see me, O judges,
contending with those men in my former fashion; not because it is right for
me to shirk anything which the safety of Plancius requires, but because it
is neither necessary, that I should follow up that argument with my voice,
which you already see with your mind; and because those
very men whom I see already as witnesses, have deserved so well of me, that
you ought to take upon your own prudence the task of reproving them, and to
excuse my modesty from that task.
This one thing I beg and entreat of you, O judges, both for the sake of this
man whom I am defending, and out of regard to the common danger; not to
think that the fortunes of innocent men are to be placed at the mercy of
reports which people falsely pretend that they have heard, or of vague and
uncertain conversation.
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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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