[48]
For I will argue with you in this way. Do you choose
any one tribe you please, and prove, as you are bound to do, what agent
received the money for corrupting it, and who distributed the money among
the men of the tribe. And if you cannot do that, which in my opinion you
will not even begin to attempt, I will show you the means to which he owes
his success. Is not this a fair challenge? Do not you like to proceed in
this manner? Can I come to closer quarters, as they say, or can I meet you
on a fairer field? Why are you silent? Why do you conceal your intentions?
Why do you seek to shirk off? Again and again I press upon you, and keep
close to you; I pursue you, I ask for, I even demand some definite
accusation. Whatever tribe, I say, you select, whose votes Plancius
received, you show, if you can, any flaw in that one instance. I will then
show you by what means he really did gain its vote, and the principle shall
be exactly the same in his case, and, O Laterensis, in yours. For as you, if
I were to ask you, may be able to explain to me through whose influence it
was that you gained the affection of these tribes who voted for you, so do I
assert that I will explain to you, our adversary, the means by which we
gained the vote of any tribe you choose to inquire about.
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.