[39]
There is an oration extant of a man, by far (in my opinion, that is,) the
ablest and most eloquent of all our countrymen, Caius Gracchus; in which oration Lucius Piso
is accused of many base and wicked actions. What a man to be so accused! A man who was of such
virtue and integrity, that even in those most admirable: times, when it was not possible to
find a thoroughly worthless man, still he alone was called Thrifty. And when Gracchus was
ordering him to be summoned before the assembly, and his lictor asked him which Piso, because
there were many of the name, “You are compelling me,” says he,
“to call my enemy, Thrifty.” That very man then, whom even his enemy could
not point out with sufficient clearness without first praising him; whose one surname pointed
not only who he was, but what sort of man he was; that very man was, nevertheless, exposed to
a false and unjust accusation of disgraceful conduct.
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