[43]
Imagine for example that a skilful commander, without whose aid the state cannot hope to crush its
enemies, is labouring under a charge which is obviously true: will not the common interest irresistibly
summon our orator to defend him? We know at
any rate that Fabricius publicly voted for and secured
the election to the consulate of Cornelius Rufinus,
[p. 381]
despite the tact that he was a bad citizen and his
personal enemy, merely because he knew that he
was a capable general and the state was threatened
with war.1 And when certain persons expressed
their surprise at his conduct, he replied that he had
rather be robbed by a fellow-citizen than be sold as
a slave by the enemy. Well then, had Fabricius
been an orator, would he not have defended Rufinus
against a charge of peculation, even though his
guilt were as clear as day?
1 The late is uncertain, but the reference must be either to the Samnite war of 290 or the war with Pyrrhus.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1922.
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