[147]
He says that he sold the tenths of the Leontine district at a high price. I showed
at the beginning that he ought not to be considered to have sold them at a high
price' who in name indeed sold the tenths, but who in reality and by the terms of
the sale, and through his law, and through his edict, and through the licentiousness
of the collectors, left no tenths at all to the cultivators of the soil. I proved
that also, that others had sold the tenths of the Leontine district and of other
districts also, for a high price; and that they had sold them according to the law
of Hiero; and that they sold them for even more than you had, and that then no
cultivator had complained. Nor indeed was there anything of which any one could
complain, when they were sold according to a law most equitably framed; nor did it
ever make any difference to the cultivator at what price the tenths were sold. For
it is not the case that, if they be sold at a high price, the cultivator owes more,
if at a low price, less. As the crops are produced, so are the tenths sold. But it
is for the interest of the cultivator, that his crops should be such that the tenths
may be able to be sold at as high a price as possible. As long as the cultivator
does not give more than a tenth, it is for his interest that the tenth should be as
large as possible.
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