[72]
Well, what comes next? If they were ordered to give some
small compliment to Apronius, the delight of the praetor's life, suppose that it was
given to Apronius, if it seems to you the compliment to Apronius, and not the
plunder of the praetor. You order them to take the tenths; to give Apronius a
compliment,—thirty-three thousand medimni of
wheat. What is this? One city is compelled by the command of the praetor to give to
the Roman people out of one district almost food enough to support it for a month.
Did you sell the tenths at a high price, when such a compliment was given to the
collector? In truth, if you had inquired carefully into the proper price, then when
you were selling them, they would rather have given ten thousand medimni more then, than six hundred thousand sesterces afterwards. It seems a great booty. Listen to what follows,
and remark it carefully, so as to be the less surprised that the Sicilians, being
compelled by their necessity, entreated aid from their patrons, from the consuls,
from the senate, from the laws, from the tribunals.
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M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge. London. George Bell & Sons. 1903.
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