[43]
Were you to consider what might be got in one
year, or in two years, and to neglect the safety of the province, the well-doing of
the corn interest, and the interests of the republic in future times, though you
came to the administration of affairs when matters were so managed that sufficient
corn was supplied to the Roman people from Sicily, and still it was a profitable thing for the cultivators to
plough and till their land? What have you brought about? What have you gained? In
order that, while you were praetor, some addition might be made to the revenue
derived from the tenths, you have caused the allotments of land to be deserted and
abandoned. Lucius Metellus succeeded you. Were you more innocent than Metellus? Were
you more desirous of credit and honour? For you were seeking the consulship, but
Metellus neglected the renown which he had inherited from his father and his
grandfather. He sold the tenths for much less, not only than you had done, but even
than those had who had sold them before you.
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