[153]
I do not blame
Metellus; he spared a friend of his—a connection, indeed, as I have heard
him say himself. I do not, I say, blame Metellus; but I do marvel how he not only
prejudged the case of a man concerning whom he was unwilling that any previous
decision should take place by means of judges, but even judged most severely and
harshly respecting him. For, in the first place, if he thought that Apronius would
be acquitted, there was no reason for his fearing any previous decision. In the
second place, if Apronius were condemned, all men were likely to think that the
cause of Verres was involved in his; this at all events Metellus did now decide, and
he determined that their affairs and their causes were identical, since he
determined that, if Apronius were condemned, it would be a prejudging of the case of
Verres. And one fact is at the same time a proof of two things; both that the
cultivators gave much more than they owed to Apronius because they were constrained
by violence and fear; and also, that Apronius was transacting Verres's business in
his own name, since Lucius Metellus determined that Apronius could not be condemned
without giving a decision at the same time respecting the wickedness and dishonesty
of Verres.
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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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