[24]
Now, in order that Hortensius may not be able to employ any new sort of complaint,
and to say that a defendant is oppressed if the accuser says nothing about him; that
nothing is so dangerous to the fortunes of an innocent man as for his adversaries to
keep silence; and in order that he may not praise my abilities in a way which I do
not like, when he says that, if I had said much, I should have relieved him against
whom I was speaking, and that I have undone him because I said nothing,—I
will comply with his wishes, I shall employ one long unbroken speech: not because it
is necessary, but that I may try whether he will be most vexed at my having been
silent then or at my speaking now.
This text is part of:
M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge. London. George Bell & Sons. 1903.
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