[46]
Then, why have you prepared anything contrary to the laws? This
charge would have had weight in the ancient severity and dignity of the republic.
Now, I not only do not accuse you on account of this offence, but I do not even
reprove you with an ordinary reprimand. Lastly, did you never think that this would
be discreditable to you? did you never think it would be ground for an accusation,
or cause for unpopularity, to have a transport openly built for you, in a most
frequented place in that province in which you had the supreme command? What did you
suppose that they said who saw it? What did you suppose that they thought who heard
of it? Did they think that you were going to take that vessel to Italy, empty? that you were going to let it out as a
sailing boat, when you got to Rome? No one
would even believe that you had in Italy
any farm on the coast, and that you were preparing a merchant vessel for the purpose
of moving your crops. Did you wish every man's conversation to be such as for men to
say openly that you were preparing that ship to carry all your plunder from
Sicily, and to go to and fro for the
booty which you had left behind?
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