3.
[11]
And that you may the more easily do this, I will endeavour to make you understand how
this matter has been managed and carried out. Caius Quinctius was the brother of this
Publius Quinctius; in other respects a sufficiently prudent and attentive head of a
family, but in one matter a little less wise, inasmuch as he formed a partnership with
Sextus Naevius, a respectable man, but one who had not been brought up so as to be
acquainted with the rights of partnership, or with the duties of a head of an
established family. 1
Not that he was wanting in abilities; for Sextus Naevius as a buffoon was never
considered without wit, nor as a crier was he reckoned unmannerly. What followed? As
nature had given him nothing better than a voice, and his father had left him nothing
besides his freedom, he made gain of his voice, and used his freedom for the object of
being loquacious with impunity.
[12]
So there was no
reason in the world for your taking him as a partner, except that he might learn with
your money what a harvest money can produce. Nevertheless, induced by acquaintance and
intimacy with the man, Quinctius, as I have said, entered into a partnership with him as
to those articles which were procured in Gaul.
He had considerable property in cattle, and a well-cultivated and productive farm.
Naevius is carried off from the halls of Licinius, 2 and from the gang of criers, into
Gaul and across the Alps; there is a great change in his situation, 3 none in his disposition; for he who from his boyhood had been
proposing to himself gain without any outlay, as soon as he spent anything himself and
brought it to the common stock, could not be content with a moderate profit.
[13]
Nor is it any wonder if he, who had his voice for sale,
thought that those things which he had acquired by his voice would be a great profit to
him; so that without much moderation, he carried off whatever he could from the common
stock to his private house for himself. And in this he was as industrious as if all who
behaved in a partnership with exact good faith, were usually condemned in a trial before
an arbitrator. 4 But concerning
these matters I do not consider it necessary to say what Publius Quinctius wishes me to
mention; although the cause calls for it: yet as it only calls for it, and does not
absolutely require it, 5 I will pass it over.
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1 The office of praeco was so little reputable that before Cicero's death a law was passed to prevent all persons who had been praecones from becoming decuriones in the municipia. Under the emperors, however it became very profitable.
2 The Hall of Licinius, i.e. Licinius Crassus, was the celebrated one where he erected four columns of Hymettian marble, for the theatrical shows in his aedileship, and was one of the common resorts of auctioneers and criers.
3 Coelum non animum mutant qui trans mare currunt. —;Hor. Epist. 1, ii. 27.
4 The Latin has “arbitrium pro socio condemnari,” on which Graevius says, “Arbitrium pro socio, is a formula of law, by which is signified an action and trial in a case of partnership if any one had cheated his partner; and Cicero means that Naevius was as industrious in cheating his partner, as if those who did not cheat were liable to be condemned, and not those who did cheat.”
5 The Latin has quia postulat non flagitat, both words being nearly synonymous, but flagito being evidently a stronger word than postulo.
M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge. London. George Bell & Sons. 1903.
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