[27]
There will also not
infrequently be certain cases, in which it is easy to
rebut the charge that is under trial, but the conduct
of which is hampered by the past life of our client
and the many and serious crimes which he has
committed. We must dispose of these first, in order
that the judge may give a favourable hearing to our
defence of the actual facts which form the question
at issue. For example, if we have to defend
Marcus Caelius, the best course for his advocate to
adopt will be to meet the imputations of luxury,
wantonness and immorality which are made against
him before we proceed to the actual charge of poisoning. It is with these points that the speech of Cicero
in his defence is entirely concerned. Is he then to
go on to make a statement about the property of
Palla and explain the whole question of rioting, a
charge against which Caelius has already defended
himself in the speech which he delivered on his own
behalf?
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1921.
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