[16]
But if we could prove to Caesar that
Ligarius was actually not in Africa at all, if we wished to save an
unfortunate citizen by an honourable and merciful falsehood; still it would
not be the act of a man, in a case of such danger and peril to a
fellow-citizen, to contradict and refute our falsehood; and if it were
decent for any one to do so, it would certainly not be so for one who had
himself been in the same case and condition But, however, it
is one thing to be unwilling that Caesar should make a mistake, and another
to be unwilling he should be merciful. Then you would say,
“Beware, O Caesar, of believing all this—Ligarius was in
Africa. He did bear arms against you.” But now what is it that you
say “Take care you do not pardon him.” This is not the
language of a man but he who uses it to you, O Caius Caesar, will find it an
easier matter to abjure his own humanity than to strip you of yours.
This text is part of:
Search the Perseus Catalog for:
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.