[131]
When the collectors were in the
habit of saying this all over the province, and mixing up your name with so base and
infamous a business, did it never come into your mind to take care of your own
character? Did it never occur to you to look to your liberty and fortunes? When the
terror of your name was constantly present to the ears and minds of the
cultivators,—when the collectors made use, not of their own power, but of
your wickedness and your name to compel the cultivators to come to terms with
them,—Did you think that there would be any tribunal at Rome so profligate, so abandoned, so mercenary that
any protection from its judgment would be found for you?—when it was
notorious that, when the tenths had been sold contrary to the regulations, the laws,
and the customs of all men, the collectors, while employed in seizing the property
and fortunes of the cultivators, were used to say that the shares were yours, the
affair yours, the plunder yours; and that you said nothing, and though you could not
conceal that you were aware of it, were still able to bear and endure it, because
the magnitude of the gain obscured the magnitude of the danger, and because the
desire of money had a good deal more influence over you than the fear of judgment.
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