[48]
In the
first place, I can understand that it may be possible that they did not disburse any
money out of the treasury. In fact, even the Capitol, as it was built in the time of
our ancestors, was able to be built and completed by public authority, but without
any public payment, workmen being pressed into the service, and a fair quota of work
being exacted from each person respectively. In the next place, I see this also,
(which I will prove when I produce my witnesses, from the accounts of the Mamertines
themselves,) that a great deal of money was spent by that man which was entered as
paid for imaginary contracts for works that never existed. For it is not at all
strange that the Mamertines should in their accounts have shown a regard for that
man's safety, from whom they had received the greatest benefits, and whom they had
known to be much more friendly to them than he was to the Roman people. But if it is
any argument that the Mamertines did not give you money, because they have not got
it down in their accounts, let it be an argument also that the ship cost you
nothing, because you have no entry to produce of having bought it, or having made a
contract with any one to build it for you.
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