[2]
Therefore, as matters stood at first your decision was more difficult, but my
defence was easy. For I originally rested my whole case on the evidence;
now I rest it on the confession of my adversary; and to oppose his audacity in acts of
violence, his impudence in a court of justice, may fairly be considered as the task of your
power, not of my abilities.— For what is easier than to decide on the case of
a man who confesses the fact? But it is difficult for me to speak with sufficient force of
that which cannot be by language made out worse than it is in reality, and cannot be made more
plain by my speech than it is by the confession of the parties actually concerned.
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M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge, B. A. London. Henry G. Bohn, York Street, Covent Garden. 1856.
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