1.
In all causes of more than ordinary importance, O Caius Caesar, I am
accustomed, at the beginning of my speech, to be more vehemently affected
than either common custom or my own age appears to require. And in this
particular cause I am agitated by so many considerations, that in proportion
as my fidelity to my friend inspires me with zeal to defend the safety of
king Deiotarus, in the same proportion do my fears take away from my ability
to do so. In the first place, I am speaking in defence of the life and
fortunes of a king; and although there is no particular injustice in such a
fact, especially when it is oneself who is in danger yet it is so unusual
for a king to be tried for his life, that up to this time no such thing has
ever been heard of.
[2]
In the second place, I
am compelled now to defend against a most atrocious accusation that very
king whom I, in common with all the senate, used formerly to extol on
account of his uninterrupted services towards our republic. There is this
further consideration, that I am disturbed by the cruelty of one of the
prosecutors, and by the unworthy conduct of the other.
O cruel, not to say wicked and impious, Castor! a grandson, who has brought
his grandfather into danger of his life, and has caused that man to dread
his youth, whose old age he was bound to defend and protect; who has sought
to recommend his entrance into life to our favour by impiety and wickedness;
who has instigated his grandfather's slave, whom he corrupted by bribes, to
accuse his master, and has carried him away from the feet of the king's
ambassadors.
[3]
But when I saw the countenance and heard
the words of this runaway slave, accusing his master,—his absent
master,—his master, who was a most devoted friend to our
republic,—I did not feel so much grief at the depressed condition
of the monarch himself, as fear for the general fortunes of every one. For
though, according to the usage of our ancestors, it is not lawful to examine
a slave as a witness against his master, not even by
torture,—in which mode of examination pain might, perhaps, elicit
the truth from a man even against his will,—a slave has arisen,
who, without any compulsion, accuses him against whom he might not legally
say a word even on the rack.
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M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge, B. A. London. George Bell & Sons, York Street, Covent Garden. 1891.
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