[128]
And that you may be aware that man had no
consideration for either the revenue or for our posterity, in comparison with
present gain and booty, see what Metellus writes at the end:—“I
have taken care of the revenues for the future.” He says that he has taken
care of the revenues for the future. He would not write that he had taken care of
the revenues, if he had not meant to show this, that you had ruined the revenues.
For what reason was there for Metellus taking care for the future of the revenues in
respect of the tenths, and of the whole corn interest, if that man had not diverted
the revenues of the Roman people to his own profit And Metellus himself, who is
taking care of the revenues for the future, who is reassembling the cultivators of
the soil who are left, what does he effect but this, to make those men plough, if
they can, to whom Verres's satellite Apronius has hardly left one plough remaining,
but who yet remained on their land in the hope and expectation of Metellus? What
more? What became of the rest of the Sicilians? What became of that numerous body of
cultivators who were not only driven away from their farms, but who even fled from
their cities, from the province, having had all their property and all their
fortunes taken from them? By what means can they be recalled? How many praetors of
incorruptible wisdom will be required to re-establish, in process of time, that
multitude of cultivators in their farms and their habitations?
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