[164]
I should now wish to ask
of Metellus himself, whether by his power and authority he has at all weakened my
speech? I think the very same language is still appropriate. For, even if the
statues were ever so much thrown down, I could not show them to you on the ground.
This only statement could I use, that so wise a city had decided that the statues of
Caius Verres ought to be demolished. And this argument Metellus has not taken from
me. He has even given me this additional one; he has enabled me to complain, if I
thought fit, that authority is exercised over our friends and allies with so much
injustice, that, even in the services they do people, they are not allowed to use
their own unbiased judgment; he has enabled me to entreat you to form your
conjectures, how you suppose Lucius Metellus behaved to me in those matters in which
he was able to injure me, when he behaved with such palpable partiality in this one
in which he could be no hindrance to me. But I am not angry with Metellus, nor do I
wish to rob him of his excuse which he puts forth to every one, that he did nothing
spitefully nor with any especial design.
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