M. Tullius Cicero, Against Piso
C. D. Yonge, Ed.

I say nothing of the gold for a crown, which tormented you a long time, while at one time you were inclined towards it and at another time unwilling to take it. For the law of your son-in-law forbade it to be decreed or to be accepted, unless a triumph was also decreed. But nevertheless you, in respect of that gold, could not find in your heart to disgorge the money which you had received and devoured, as in the case of the hundred talents of the Achaeans; you only changed the names and descriptions of the pretexts under which you extracted the money. I say nothing of the commissions which you scattered at random over the provinces; I say nothing of the number of vessels, or of the sum total of the plunder you acquired; I say nothing of the system under which you levied and extorted all the corn; I say nothing of your having stripped both nations and individuals of their liberties, even though they had had those liberties given them by name as rewards, not one of all which things is not carefully provided against and expressly forbidden to be done by the Sullan law. [91]

You, on your departure (O you punishment, O you Fury of the allies) destroyed the unhappy Aetolia, which being separated by a great distance from the barbarian nations, is placed in the lap of peace and is in almost the centre of Greece. You confess as indeed you mentioned yourself only just now that Arsinoë and Stratus and Naupactus noble and wealthy cities were taken by the enemy. And by what enemies? Why, by those whom you, while encamped at Ambracia, on your first arrival, compelled to depart from the towns of the Agrinae and of the Dolopes, and to leave their altars and their homes. But now, on this departure of yours, O you illustrious “Imperator” though the sudden destruction of Aetolia was no trifling addition to your previous disasters,—you disbanded your army; nor was there any punishment which could be considered due to such guilt as yours which you were not willing to undergo, rather than allow any one to become acquainted with the existing numbers of the relics of your army.