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[9]
There are other
tortures,—others, I tell you, O you most abandoned and insane man,
which are far more miserable. For in proportion as the vigor of the mind exceeds
that of the body, so also are the sufferings which rack the mind more terrible
than those which are endured by the body. He, therefore, who commits a wicked
action is more wretched than he who is compelled to endure the wickedness of
another. Trebonius was tortured by Dolabella; and so, indeed, was Regulus by the
Carthaginians. If on that account the Carthaginians were considered very cruel
for such behavior to an enemy, what must we think of Dolabella, who treated a
citizen in such a manner? Is there any comparison? or can we doubt which of the
two is most miserable? he whose death the senate and Roman people wish to
avenge, or he who has been adjudged an enemy by the unanimous vote of the
senate? For in every other particular of their lives, who could possibly,
without the greatest insult to Trebonius, compare the life of Trebonius to that
of Dolabella? Who is ignorant of the wisdom, and genius, and humanity, and
innocence of the one, and of his greatness of mind as displayed in his exertions
for the freedom of his country? The other, from his very childhood, has taken
delight in cruelty; and, moreover, such has been the shameful nature of his
lusts, that he has always delighted in the very fact of doing those things which
he could not even be reproached with by a modest enemy.
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