[199]
But amid this terrible ill-treatment,
there was still this wretched consolation,—that he seemed only to be
losing what, under another praetor, he could get again out of the same land. But now
it is necessary for the cultivator—to give money, which he does not get
out of the land—to sell his oxen, and his plough itself, and all his tools
For you are not to think this. “The man has also possessions in ready
money; he has also possessions inland, near the city.” For when a burden
is imposed on a cultivator of the soil, it is not the mean and ability of the man
that is to be considered, whether he has any property besides; but the quality and
description of his land, what that can endure, what that can suffer, what that can
and ought to produce. Although those men have been drained and ruined by Verres in
every possible manner, still you ought to decide what contribution you consider the
cultivator ought to render to the republic on account of his land, and what charges
he can support. You impose the payment of tenths on them. They endure that. A second
tenth. You think they must be subservient to your necessities,—that they
must, besides that, supply you with more if you choose to purchase it They will so
supply you if you choose.
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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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