[61]
Then indeed those decisions of the senatorial body,
branded with no imaginary odium, but with real and conspicuous infamy, covered with disgrace
and ignominy, would have left no room for any defence of them. For what answer could these
judges make if any one asked of them, “You have condemned Scamander; of what crime?
Because, forsooth, he attempted to murder Habitus by poison, by the agency of the slave of the
doctor. What was Scamander to gain by the death of Habitus? Nothing; but he was the agent of
Oppianicus. You have condemned Caius Fabricius; why so? Because, as he himself was exceedingly
intimate with Oppianicus, and as his freedman had been detected in the very act, it was not
proved that he was entirely ignorant of his design.” If, then, they had acquitted
Oppianicus himself, after he had been twice condemned by their own decisions, who could have
endured such infamy on the part of the tribunals, such inconsistency in judicial decisions,
and such caprice on the part of the judges?
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M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge, B. A. London. Henry G. Bohn, York Street, Covent Garden. 1856.
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