[91]
But, as is
often the case, the violence and tumultuous nature of war brings many things to pass
without the knowledge of the generals. While he who was administering the main
government was occupied in other matters, there were men who in the meantime were curing
their own wounds; who rushed about in the darkness and threw everything into confusion
as if eternal night had enveloped the whole Republic. And by such men as these I wonder
that the courts of justice were not burnt, that there might be no trace left of any
judicial proceedings; for they did destroy both judges and accusers. There is this
advantage, that they lived in such a manner that even if they wished it, they could not
put to death all the witnesses; for as long as the race of men exists, there will not be
wanting men to accuse them: as long as the state lasts, trials will take place. But as I
began to say, both Erucius, if he had these arguments to use which I have mentioned, in
any cause Of his, would be able to speak on them as long as he pleased, and I can do the
same. But I choose, as I said before, to pass by them lightly, and only just to touch on
each particular, so that all men may perceive that I am not accusing men of my own
inclination, but only defending my own client from a sense of duty.
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.