[124]
Read the rest of the
letter.—“The greatest pains has been taken by me to sell the
tenths for as good a price as possible.” Why then, O Metellus, did you not
sell them for as much as Verres? “Because I found the allotments deserted,
the fields empty, the province in a wretched and ruined condition.” What?
And as for the land that was sown, how was any one found to sow it? Read the
letters. [The letters are read.] He says that he had sent letters, and that, when he
arrived, he had given a positive promise; he had interposed his authority to prevail
on them, and had all but given hostages to the cultivators that he would be in no
respect like Verres But what is this about which he says that he took so much pains?
Read—“To prevail on the cultivators of the soil, who were left,
to sow as largely as they could.” Who were left? What does this
mean—left? After what war? after what devastation? What mighty slaughter
was there in Sicily, or what was there of
such duration and such disaster while you were praetor, that your successor had to
collect and recover the cultivators who were left?
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