[115]
This request was with difficulty obtained
from Apronius, as a most excessive kindness to those men who were even then safe.
And when this was obtained, this is what was obtained, forsooth, that they might be
allowed to pay three tenths instead of one. But if your own interest had not been at
stake in the matter, O Verres, they would rather have entreated you not to be made
to pay more than one tenth, than have begged of a promise not to be made to pay more
than three. Now, that at the present time I may pass over those rules which
Apronius, in a kingly, or rather in a tyrannical spirit, made with respect to the
cultivators, and that I may not at present call those men from whom he took all
their corn, and to whom he left nothing not only of their corn, but nothing even of
their property; just see how much gain is made of these three medimni, which he considered as a great favour and indulgence.
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M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge. London. George Bell & Sons. 1903.
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