17.
[39]
I come now to the evidence of the people of Dorylaeum, who, when they were brought into
court said that they had lost their public documents near some caverns. O the shepherds (I
know not who they were), the literary shepherds! if they took nothing from those men except
the letters! But we suspect that there is some other reason, and that we should not think
those men quite destitute of all cunning. There is, I imagine, a heavier penalty at Dorylaeum
than among other people, for forging or tampering with written documents. If they had produced
the genuine letters, there was no accusation in them; if they produced forged ones, there was
a penalty for such an act. They thought the finest thing they could do was to say that they
were lost.
[40]
Let them be quiet then, and allow me to set this
down as so much gain, said to turn to something else. They will not allow me to do so. For
some one or other gives them a lift, and says that he, as a private person, had given him
money. But this cannot possibly be endured. He who reads things from those public documents
which have been in the power of the prosecutor, ought not to carry any weight with him; but,
nevertheless, a formal trial appears to take place when the documents themselves, of whatever
character they may be, are produced. But when a man, whom not one of you has ever seen, whom
no living mortal has ever heard of only says, “I gave,” will you hesitate,
O judges, to save a most noble citizen from this most unknown of Phrygians? And this very man
was lately disbelieved by three honourable and worthy Roman knights, when in a case in which a
man's liberty was at stake, he said that the man who was claimed was his own kinsman. How has
it come about that the man who was not considered a trustworthy witness as to his own blood
and family is a credible authority concerning a public injury?
[41]
And when this Dorylaean was lately carried out to burial in the presence of
a great multitude and numerous assembly of you, Laelius tried to excite odium against Lucius
Flaccus by imputing his death to him. You are acting unjustly, O Laelius, if you think that it
is our risk whether your comrades live or die; especially as I think that this instance
proceeded from your own carelessness. For you gave a Phrygian, a man who had never seen a
fig-tree, a whole basket of figs; and his death was to some extent a relief to you, for you
lost a very voracious guest. But what good did it to Flaccus, as he was well enough till he
came forward here, and who died after he had put out his sting and delivered his evidence? But
that prop of your cause, Mithridates, was retained as a witness by us and examined two whole
days; and, after he had said all that he wished, departed reproved, convicted, and broken
down, and now walks about in a breastplate. That learned and sagacious man is afraid that
Lucius Flaccus may burden himself with a crime, now that he cannot escape him as a witness; so
that he, who, before the evidence was given, restrained himself when he might have got
something by the deed, is likely now to add the guilt of an enormous crime to the charge of
covetousness, which is only supported by false evidence. But since Quintus
Hortensius has spoken at great length and with great acuteness concerning this witness, and
respecting the whole charge which has reference to Mithridates, we, as we originally intended,
will proceed to the other points.
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