[195]
When the senate had given you money out of the
treasury, and had paid you money which you were to pay the cultivators, a denarius for every modius, what
was it your duty to do? If you had wished to do what Lucius Piso, surnamed Thrifty,
who first made the law about extortion, would have done, when you had bought the
corn at the regular price, you would have returned whatever money there was over. If
you wished to act as men desirous of gaining popularity, or as kind-hearted men
would, as the senate had valued the corn at more than the regular price, you would
have paid for it according to the valuation of the senate, and not according to the
market price. Or if, as many do, a conduct which produces some profit indeed, but
still an honest and allowable one, you would not have bought corn, since it was
cheaper than they expected, but you would have retained the money which the senate
had granted you for furnishing the granary.
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